Stocks in Canada’s biggest market ended higher on Friday, as energy stocks recovered with oil prices after a week-long selloff and mining stocks also moved higher as gold hit a three-week high.
The S&P/TSX Composite gained 30 points to close the day, week and month at 14,582.72. The index lost 0.1% on the week, after four weeks of gains.
The Canadian dollar gained 0.65 cents to 76.66 cents U.S.
Markets in Canada are closed Monday for the Civic Holiday
Gold stocks led the pack, as Kinross Gold bolted 12 cents higher, or 1.8%, to $6.75, while Barrick Gold jumped 48 cents, or 1.7%, to $28.51.
In the energy patch, Baytex Energy gushed 32 cents, or 5.5%, to $6.13, while EnCana climbed 28 cents, or 2.7%, to $10.50.
Health-care stocks took the biggest pounding as Valeant Pharmaceuticals ditched $1.37, or 4.5%, to $29.08, while Concordia International doffed $1.12, or 4.7%, to $22.80.
Among consumer staples, Loblaw finished off 32 cents to $72.83, while Alimentation Couche-Tard gave back 50 cents to $59.03.
BlackBerry dropped 14 cents, or 1.4%, to $9.90, as tech stocks finished in the red.
On the economic beat, Statistics Canada reported that real gross domestic product fell 0.6% in May, the largest monthly decline since March 2009.
The decrease in May was primarily due to lower non-conventional oil extraction, as a result of the Fort McMurray wildfire and evacuation
The agency industrial product price index came in 0.6% higher in June, mainly due to higher prices for energy and petroleum products.
Its raw materials price index jumped 1.8%, as a result of higher prices for crude energy products.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange gained 11.22 points to 796.17
Seven of the 13 subgroups were higher as gold galloped 1.6%, materials accumulated 1%, and energy was better by 0.7%.
The half-dozen laggards were weighed most by health-care, off 1.5%, while consumer staples moved lower 0.6%, and information technology lost 0.5%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks closed mixed Friday, the last trading day of the month, as encouraging earnings from major tech companies offset negative reports from some energy firms and a disappointing economic report.
The Dow Jones Industrials remained negative 24.11 points to 18,432.24, with Exxon Mobil leading decliners and Verizon the top advancer.
The S&P 500 gained 3.54 points to 2,173.60, with telecommunications leading six sectors higher and materials the greatest decliner. The S&P 500 touched a fresh all-time intraday high in late-morning trade, with telecommunications and utilities leading advancers. Treasury yields fell sharply after the gross domestic product miss.
The NASDAQ Composite added 7.15 points to 5,162.13. Gains were supported by a rise of more than 4% in shares of Alphabet and 1.5% in Amazon.com after both firms reported earnings Thursday that beat on both the top and bottom line.
As of midday trade, the S&P 500 was on pace to end the week mildly lower, while the Dow was pacing for weekly declines of more than half a percent. The NASDAQ was on pace for a weekly return of more than 1%.
Exxon Mobil posted earnings that badly missed expectations. The stock traded 2% lower for the greatest negative impact on the Dow.
Chevron came well off session lows to trade a touch lower. The firm reported a second-quarter loss of 78 cents U.S. a share as it reported $2.8 billion in impairments. The same period last year, the firm reported profit of 30 cents U.S. a share. Ex-items, adjusted earnings per share topped expectations by three cents U.S. at 35 cents a share.
Advance read on second-quarter GDP showed a 1.2% annualized growth rate, well below expectations for 2.6%. Consumer spending, which accounted for most of the GDP rebound in the second quarter, increased at a 4.2% rate, the fastest since the fourth quarter of 2014. Consumer spending accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity,
In other economic news, the employment cost index rose 0.6% on a seasonally-adjusted basis, for the three-month period ending June of this year.
Chicago PMI came in at 55.8 in July versus 56.8 in June. Consumer sentiment and two Federal Reserve speakers are also on the calendar Friday.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury gained ground, lowering yields to 1.45% from Thursday’s 1.5%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices chugged higher 32 cents a barrel to $41.46 U.S.
Gold prices hiked $17.70 to $1,358.90 U.S. an ounce.
