TSX Ends Marginally Up After Lackluster Session

(RTTNews) - The Canadian stock market ended slightly up on Friday after moving along the flat line for much of the day's session as investors refrained from making significant moves.

The mood was cautious amid uncertainty about the near term outlook for the market. Investors digested the jobs data from Canada and the U.S.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended with a small gain of 12.25 points or 0.06% at 21,084.45, after scaling a low of 20,942.37 and a high of 21,113.17 intraday. The index

Teck Resources (TECK.B.TO), Cameco Corporation (CCO.TO), Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO), Tourmaline Oil Corp (TOU.TO), Nuvei Corp (NVEI.TO), Precision Drilling Corporation (PD.TO) and Canadian Pacific Railway (CP.TO) gained 2 to 4%.

Canada Goose Holdings (GOOS.TO) declined more than 6%. Docebo Inc (DCBO.TO), FirstService Corp (FSV.TO), Descartes Systems Group (DSG.TO), Brp Inc (DOO.TO) and Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO) shed 2.5 to 3.6%.

Data from Statistics Canada showed the Canadian economy added 54,700 jobs in December 2021, following a 153,700 gain in November and above market expectations of 27,500. Full-time employment increased by 123,000 (0.8%) in December, while part-time employment declined by 68,000 (-1.9%).

The unemployment rate in Canada declined for a seventh straight month in December, fallling to a new pandemic-low of 5.9%, from 6% in November.

Another data from Statistics Canada showed average hourly earnings in Canada increased to C$ 31.22 in December of 2021 over the previous month.

Data from the Labor Department showed non-farm payroll employment rose by 199,000 jobs in December after climbing by an upwardly revised 249,000 jobs in November. Economists had expected employment to jump by 400,000 jobs compared to the addition of 210,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.

Despite the weaker than expected job growth, the unemployment rate slid to 3.9% in December from 4.2% in November. The unemployment rate was expected to edge down to 4.1%.