Canadian Stocks Climb To Record Highs Following Jobs Data

(RTTNews) - Canadian stocks moved to the upside during trading on Friday, more than offsetting the modest pullback seen in Thursday's session.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index advanced early in the session and remained firmly positive throughout the day before closing up 244.92 points or 0.7 percent at a new record closing high of 36,381.23.

The strength on Bay Street came as gold stocks moved sharply higher along with the price of the precious metal, with the S&P/TSX Global Gold Index soaring by 6.6 percent.

Positive sentiment was also generated in reaction to a U.S. Labor Department report showing an unexpected dip in U.S. employment in the month of July, helping ease concerns about the outlook for interest rates.

The Labor Department said non-farm payroll employment fell by 23,000 jobs in July after rising by a downwardly revised 20,000 jobs in June.

Economists had expected employment to climb by 88,000 jobs compared to the addition of 57,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.

While the report points to some weakness in the labor market, the data is also seen as decreasing the chances of the Federal Reserve raising interest rates next month.

According to CME Group's FedWatch tool, the chances the Fed will raise rates by a quarter point next month have tumbled to 44 percent from 55 percent on Thursday and 67 percent a week ago.

A separate report released by Statistics Canada showed Canadian employment climbed by 75,000 jobs in July, while the unemployment rate edged down by 0.1 percentage points to 6.4 percent.