Canada’s main stock index was largely unchanged Friday with gains in industrials and energy partially offset by weakness in technology and metals, while U.S. markets were mixed.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 14.37 points at 20,612.12.
Friday saw the end of a relatively tepid week, said Craig Fehr, investment strategist at Edward Jones, with some pockets of volatility as investors recover from an unexpectedly strong showing in January.
“This was a week where I think we saw perhaps a little bit of profit-taking, perhaps a little bit of a more balanced mood, and slightly more caution taking shape in the equity markets,” he said.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 169.39 points at 33,869.27. The S&P 500 index was up 8.96 points at 4,090.46, while the Nasdaq composite was down 71.46 points at 11,718.12.
New data in Canada showed a surge of jobs in January, far above what was expected, echoing a similar surprise from the U.S. labour market last week.
A few months ago, this kind of report might have prompted a downward slide for markets, said Fehr.
But markets are starting to shift away from the “good news is bad news” reactions of the past several months as the fear of a major recession wanes, said Fehr. In fact, strength in the job market may help shore up the slowing economy, he said, and while a mild recession is still the most likely outcome, a soft landing is becoming more of a possibility.
However, interest-rate-sensitive sectors like technology did drag markets down, noted Fehr, with the TSX information technology index down 1.8 per cent and the Nasdaq down in the U.S..
Investors likely took comfort in the fact that despite a hot job market, wage growth is showing signs of moderating, said Fehr.
Oil has been drifting upward over general optimism about China’s reopening, but news today that Russia is cutting oil production helped bump it up close to the $80 mark, said Fehr.
“Those two forces are both exerting some upward pressure on oil prices,” he said.
That led to strength on the TSX’s energy index, which was up 2.4 per cent Friday.
The March crude contract was up US$1.66 at US$79.72 per barrel and the March natural gas contract was up eight cents at US$2.51 per mmBTU.
The Canadian dollar traded for 74.84 cents US compared with 74.48 cents US on Thursday.
The April gold contract was down US$4 at US$1,874.50 an ounceand the March copper contract was down eight cents at US$4.02 a pound.
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