After several muted trading days, Canada’s main stock index rallied on Friday thanks to a surge among heavyweight markets. The focus remained on the deepening Middle East conflict, causing energy shares to jump on the TSX, along with gains among the mining, financial and technology sectors.
U.S. stocks also rose as traders were pleasantly surprised by September’s jobs data, which reported nonfarm payrolls grew by 254,000 jobs last month, far better the expected gain of 150,000 that were polled from Dow Jones economists. The unemployment rate fell to 4.1 per cent despite expectations it would hold steady at 4.2 per cent.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.67 cents U.S. compared with 73.75 cents U.S. on Thursday.
U.S. crude futures traded $0.71 higher at $74.42 a barrel, and the Brent contract rose $0.43 to $78.05 a barrel.
The price of gold was down US$4.29 to US$ 2,651.45.
In world markets, the Nikkei was up 83.56 points to 38,635.62, the Hang Seng was up 623.36 points to 22,736.87, the FTSE was down 1.89 point to 8,280.63, and the DAX was up 105.52 points to 19,120.93.
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(Top image generated with AI)