TSX Pares Gains After Climbing To New Record High

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market moved on to fresh record highs Friday morning after weaker than expected jobs data from Canada and the U.S. raised hopes of interest rate cuts by the Bank of Canada and the Federal Reserve. Despite a subsequent drop into negative territory, the market edged higher and was modestly up around noon.

Materials and technology stocks are faring well. Healthcare, communications and consumer discretionary stocks are among the other notable gainers. Energy stocks are down, hurt by lower crude oil prices.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index was up 29.86 points or 0.1% at 28,945.75 a few minutes before noon. Earlier, the index had climbed to 29,115.42.

Real Matters shares were up nearly 8%. Celestica gained 7.5% and Equinox Gold rose 5%.

Cargojet, Tilray, Lundin Gold, Ballard Power Systems, Barrick Gold, Canada Goose Holdings, Ero Copper, Dundee Precious Metals, Alimentation Couche-Tard, Eldorado Gold, Kinross, Teck Resources, Descartes Systems, BlackBerry and Lightspeed Commerce were up 1 to 3.5%.

Data from Statistics Canada showed Canada's employment fell by 66,000 in August 2025, the steepest decline since January 2022. In July, the economy shed 40,800 jobs.

The unemployment rate in Canada increased to 7.1% in August, the highest level in four year. The unemployment rate was 6.9% in July.

Meanwhile, Canada's average hourly wages increased by 3.6% to C$ 37.81 on a year-over-year basis in August, following a 3.5% growth in July.

A report from Ivey Business School said the Ivey Purchasing Managers Index in Canada eased to 50.1 in August, from a one-year high of 55.8 in July.

Data from the Labor Department said non-farm payroll employment in the U.S. crept up by just 22,000 jobs in August after climbing by an upwardly revised 79,000 jobs in July.

Economists had expected employment to increase by 75,000 jobs compared to the addition of 73,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.

The report also showed the uptick of 14,000 jobs that had been reported for June was downwardly revised to a decrease of 13,000 jobs.

Meanwhile, the Labor Department said the unemployment rate inched up by 4.3 percent in August from 4.2 in July, in line with economist estimates.