Canada's main stock index was muted at open on Friday as investors further scaled back rate-cut expectations following a robust U.S. payrolls report while gains in energy shares helped cap the losses.
The TSX Composite gained 48.22 points to open Friday at 20,919.57.
The Canadian dollar poked higher 0.17 cents to 75.05 cents U.S.
Brookfield Asset Management said on Friday it would buy American Tower Corp's loss-making Indian operations for $2.5 billion. Brookfield shares acquired 19 cents to $51.56.
Services of wireless carrier Rogers Communications were briefly disrupted for more than 55,000 users in Toronto on Thursday due to a technical issue. Rogers shares gained 64 cents, or 1%, to $62.81.
Friday, Statistics Canada told us employment was virtually unchanged in December, and the unemployment rate held steady at 5.8%.
What’s more, Western University’s IVEY School of Business was due out (10 a.m.) with its December PMI report.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange slid 2.25 points to 549.31.
Seven of the 12 subgroups were negative to start out, with health-care and gold each down 0.3%, while consumer staples off 0.1%.
The five gainers were led by information technology, financials and utilities each up 0.4%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks bounced a bit on Friday as traders tried to shake an early 2024 selloff amid conflicting economic data.
The Dow Jones Industrials gained 104.94 points to start Friday at 37,545.28.
The S&P 500 picked up 23.67 points to 4,712.35.
The NASDAQ 75.93 points to 14,586.24, after five straight negative sessions.
The U.S. economy added many more jobs than anticipated in December, with non-farm payrolls growing by 216,000. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected a gain of 170,000 for last month. The unemployment rate held steady at 3.7% in another sign of continued labour strength.
A strong labour market could mean that the Fed might potentially delay the first of its rate cuts, which traders have been eagerly anticipating. Before the strong data hit Friday, traders were hoping the Fed would start cutting rates as early as March and lower them by as many as six times in 2024. Those expectations will need to be dialed back after Friday’s report.
The three major averages are all on track to break nine-week winning streaks, with the NASDAQ suffering the biggest loss for the week at 3.3%.The S&P 500 tailed off 1.7%, while the Dow was down 0.7%.
One other factor weighing on the market in the new year is the cooling off large-cap tech stocks like Apple, which has been downgraded by two research shops this week. Amy Kong, partner at wealth management company Corient, said her firm is taking a breather from buying the large tech names, several of which make up its top holdings.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury gained ground, lowering yields to 3.96% from Thursday’s 4%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices took on $1.73 to $73.92 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices progressed $19.20 to $2,069.70.
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