Canadian Stocks Reach Record Highs On Upbeat U.S. Jobs Data

(RTTNews) - Canadian stocks moved mostly higher during trading on Friday, with the S&P/TSX Composite Index reaching a new record closing high.

After ending the previous session modestly higher, the S&P/TSX Composite Index rose 99.94 points or 0.5 percent to 20,475.42.

The strength among Canadian stocks came following the release of better than expected employment data from south of the border.

The U.S. Labor Department released a report showing non-farm payroll employment spiked by 943,000 jobs in July after surging by an upwardly revised 938,000 jobs in June.

Economists had expected employment to jump by 870,000 jobs compared to the addition of 850,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.

The stronger than expected job growth was partly due to sharp increases in employment in leisure and hospitality and local government education, which shot up by 380,000 jobs and 221,000 jobs, respectively.

Reflecting the strong job growth, the unemployment rate slid to 5.4 percent in July from 5.9 percent in June, falling to its lowest level since March of 2020. Economists had expected the unemployment rate to dip to 5.7 percent.

A separate report from Statistics Canada showed Canadian employment rose by 94,000 jobs in July after jumping by 231,000 jobs in June.

The report also showed the Canadian unemployment rate fell to 7.5 percent in July from 7.8 percent in the previous month.

Financial stocks saw notable amid optimism about the economic outlook, with the S&P/TSX Capped Financial Index climbing by 1.2 percent.

Energy, healthcare and real estate stocks also moved to the upside, while gold stocks moved sharply lower along with the price of the precious metal.