Markets negative amid conflicting Canadian, U.S. jobs numbers

The Toronto stock market fell into negative territory Friday amid a big miss in Canadian job creation numbers while American employment data reassured investors that the U.S. is still the main pillar of support for the global economy.

The S&P/TSX composite index slid 70.38 points to 14,387.34 as Statistics Canada says the country lost 4,300 jobs in December but the national unemployment rate was unchanged at 6.6 per cent. Economists had forecast that the economy cranked out 15,000 jobs last month, after a decline of about 10,700 in November.

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The Canadian dollar was down 0.2 of a cent to 84.29 cents (U.S.).

New York indexes were also in the red after two days of major advances amid far more encouraging employment news as the U.S. economy created 252,000 jobs last month, comfortably above the consensus of 230,000. Also, the jobless rate fell to 5.6 per cent from 5.8 per cent.

The Dow Jones industrials fell 171 points to 17,736.89, the Nasdaq slide 35.13 points to 4,701.05 and the S&P 500 index slipped 17.82 points to 2,044.32.

The TSX energy sector rose 0.25 per cent while oil prices were lower following two days of gains, with the February contract in New York down 34 cents to $48.44 (U.S.) a barrel.

The base metals group drifted 0.1 per cent higher as March copper was down a penny to $2.76 a pound.

The gold sector ran ahead almost three per cent while February bullion was ahead $5.90 to $1,214.40 an ounce.

The financials group led decliners, down 0.35 per cent.

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Markets negative amid conflicting Canadian, U.S. jobs numbers