Equities
Canada’s main stock index fell at Friday’s opening bell with materials shares under pressure. On Wall Street, the Nasdaq and S&P 500 saw early gains on the back of positive results form Meta Platforms and Amazon, while a strong jobs report tempered sentiment.
At 9:31 a.m. ET, the Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index was down 69.77 points, or 0.33 per cent, at 21,049.44.
In the U.S., the S&P 500 opened higher by 9.87 points, or 0.20 per cent, at 4,916.06, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 41.52 points, or 0.27 per cent, to 15,403.16 at the opening bell.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 71.74 points, or 0.19 per cent, at the open to 38,448.10.
On Friday, markets got U.S. nonfarm payroll figures before the start of trading. New figures showed U.S. nonfarm payrolls rose by 353,000 positions in January, far more than the 185,000 markets had been forecasting. The U.S. unemployment rate held at 3.7 per cent.
Meanwhile, December’s jobs numbers were revised higher. The U.S. Labor Department said Friday morning that the U.S. economy added 333,000 positions in the final month of last year, instead of the 216,000 as previously reported.
The numbers come just days after the U.S. Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged and signalled that a cut in March was unlikely.
“The stronger than expected jobs report shows how the job market continues to be a bright spot within the U.S. economy,” Joe Gaffoglio, president of Mutual of America Capital Management, said.
“Fed Chair Jerome Powell recently signaled that interest-rate cuts may not start as soon as the market wanted, and this jobs report hasn’t given him any reason to change that stance.”
Canada’s January employment report is due next week.
On the corporate side, shares of Meta Platforms spiked more than 19 per cent in early trading after Facebook’s parent company announced its first dividend and posted profit and revenue ahead of market forecasts in the latest quarter amid strong ad sales in the holiday shopping period. Amazon stock, meanwhile, added more than 6 per cent after the company’s fourth-quarter revenue topped market expectations, helped by strength in its new generative AI features in its cloud and ecommerce businesses, Reuters reported.
This morning, markets got results from energy giants Exxon Mobil and Chevron. In Canada, Imperial Oil reported earnings.
Elsewhere, The Globe’s Susan Krashinsky Robertson reports Indigo Books & Music Inc. is considering a proposal from its largest shareholder to take the company private, following a tumultuous year that included a debilitating cyberattack, the departures of board members and senior executives, and mounting financial losses. The offer comes from Onex founder and chairman Gerry Schwartz, Indigo’s controlling shareholder and member of the company’s board. Mr. Schwartz’s personal holding companies, Trilogy Retail Holdings Inc. and Trilogy Investments LP, announced on Thursday that they had made a non-binding privatization proposal to acquire all of Indigo’s common shares they do not already own, for $2.25 in cash per share.
Overseas, the pan-European STOXX 600 was up 0.17 per cent by afternoon. Britain’s FTSE 100 was flat. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 were up 0.46 per cent and 0.12 per cent, respectively.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei finished up 0.41 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slid 0.21 per cent.
Commodities
Crude prices were higher in early trading but still looked set for a weekly loss after the OPEC+ group said it would keep output steady.
The day range on Brent was US$78.59 to US$79.44 in the early premarket period. The range on West Texas Intermediate was US$73.64 to US$74.47. Both benchmarks were down about 5 per cent for the week heading into Friday’s session.
OPEC+ opted this week to keep production levels changed has kept its oil output policy unchanged and will decide next month whether to extend voluntary production curbs.
Elsewhere, gold was headed for its best weekly showing in nine weeks, helped by a recent pullback in the U.S. dollar and Treasury yields.
Spot gold was steady at US$2,055.59 per ounce by early Friday morning. Gold has climbed nearly 2 per cent so far this week, set for its best weekly gain since early December. U.S. gold futures edged 0.1 per cent higher to US$2,072.70.
Currencies
The Canadian dollar was firmer while its U.S. counterpart traded around a one-week low and looked set to record its first weekly loss of the year against a group of world currencies.
The day range on the loonie was 74.66 US cents to 74.82 US cents in the early premarket period. The Canadian dollar was up about 0.64 per cent against the greenback over the past five days by early Friday morning.
“The CAD is taking advantage of the soft USD tone, some compression in spreads and positive (if volatile) risk appetite to make a little more progress against the USD and recover ground lost since the middle of the month,” Shaun Osborne, chief FX strategist with Scotiabank, said.
On world markets, the U.S. dollar index was down 0.13 per cent at 102.91 before the release of the latest U.S. jobs numbers. The index is down about 0.5 per cent for the week so far and is on track for its first weekly loss since December.
The euro gained 0.19 per cent to US$1.0893. Britain’s pound added 0.16 per cent to US$1.2763.
In bonds, the yield on the U.S. 10-year note was lower at slightly higher at 3.889 per cent.
More company news
Imperial Oil reported a fall in fourth-quarter profit on Friday, on lower oil prices and as maintenance activities hit throughput volumes. The company posted a net income of $1.37-billion or $2.47 per share, for the quarter ended Dec. 31, compared with $1.73-billion, or $2.86 per share, the previous year.
Chevron Corp on Friday beat analysts’ earnings estimates and increased dividends on higher oil and gas production, after a year of sharply lower profits on missteps and charges. Shares in the pre-trading market rose a fraction after the company beat analysts’ consensus forecast by 24 cents with adjusted earnings of $3.45 per share in the fourth quarter. The second largest U.S. oil producer reported a sharply lower, $21.3 billion profit for 2023 as earnings from oil production and refining fuels tumbled. -Reuters
Exxon Mobil on Friday posted a better-than-expected US$36-billion profit for 2023, lifted by fuels trading and higher oil and gas production. Oil majors are expected to report 2023 profits down by about a third from record levels in 2022, as oil and gas prices retreated from the peaks that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Exxon results included a US$2.5-billion impairment charge for California properties that it has been trying to sell for more than a year. Excluding that charge, annual income fell 35% to US$38.57 billion. -Reuters
Tesla is recalling 2.2 million vehicles, or nearly all of its electric vehicles in the United States, due to incorrect font sizes on warning lights, which increases the risk of a crash, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said on Friday. This is more than the 2.03 million vehicles Tesla recalled in the United States two months back, its biggest-ever such move at the time, to install new safeguards in its Autopilot advanced driver-assistance system. -Reuters
Economic news
(8:30 a.m. ET) U.S. nonfarm payrolls for January.
(10 a.m. ET) U.S. factory orders for December.
(10 a.m. ET) U.S. University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment for January (final reading).
With Reuters and The Canadian Press
Terry Weber