TSX Recovers From Early Lows, Ends Just Marginally Down

(RTTNews) - After a sharp drop and a subsequent modest recovery Friday morning, the Canadian market faltered again, but slowly edged higher to eventually end the day's session just marginally down.

The market lost ground as data showing a bigger than expected addition in U.S. non-farmroll employment in the month of January dashed hopes of an early rate cut from the Federal Reserve.

However, the U.S. market ended on a strong note as traders cheered the buoyant jobs data and a report showing an improvement in consumer sentiment.

Energy stocks tumbled on concerns about the outlook for oil demand from the world's second largest economy, and potential impact of higher interest rates on U.S. economic growth. Gold stocks declined on stronger dollar.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index, which fell to a low of 20,943.08 earlier in the day, losing more than 160 points in the process, ended the session at 21,085.09 with a loss of 34.12 points or 0.16%. The index gained about 0.3% in the week.

Paramount Resources (POU.TO), Agnico Eagle Mines (AEM.TO), Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO), Tourmaline Oil Corp (TOU.TO) and Brookfield Renewable Corporation (BEPC.TO) lost 3 to 4.2%.

Newmont Corporation (NGT.TO), BCE Inc (BCE.TO), Franco-Nevada Corporation (FNV.TO), Cameco Corporation (CCO.TO), Cogeco Communications (CCA.TO), West Fraser Timber (WFG.TO) and Colliers International (CIGI.TO) ended lower by 1.3 to 3%.

Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO) climbed 8.7%. Aritzia Inc (ATZ.TO) gained 6.5%. goeasy (GSY.TO) rallied 2.75%. TFI International (TFII.TO) advanced 2.3%. Canadian Tire Corporation (CTC.A.TO), CGI Inc (GIB.A.TO) and Constellation Software (CSU.TO) ended higher by 1.1 to 1.4%.

The Labor Department's data today showed non-farm payroll employment spiked by 353,000 jobs in January compared to economist estimates for an increase of about 180,000 jobs.

The Labor Department also said the unemployment rate in January came in unchanged from the previous month at 3.7%. Economists had expected the unemployment rate to inch up to 3.8%.