Canadian Market Weighed Down By Losses In Materials Sector

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market is down in negative territory around noon on Friday, weighed down by losses in materials section due to weak metal prices. Investors are also digesting the jobs data from Canada and the U.S.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index is down 155.02 or 0.7% points at 22,074.08 a few minutes before noon.

The Materials Capped Index is down 3.65%. Wesdome Gold Mines (WDO.TO), Torex Gold Resources (TXG.TO), Equinox Gold (EQX.TO), First Majestic Silver (AG.TO), Osisko Mining (OSK.TO), New Gold (NDG.TO), Kinross Gold Corp (K.TO), Iamgold (IMG.TO), Lundin Gold (LUG.TO) and MAG Silver Corp (MAG.TO) are down 6 to 8.6%.

Real estate stocks are among the other major losers in the session. Boardwalk Real Estate (BEI.UN.TO), First Capital (FCR.UN.TO), Riocan Real Estate (REI.UN.TO) and Interrent Real Estate Investment (IIP.UN.TO) and Northwest Healthcare Properties (NWH.UN.TO) are down 1.6 to 2.5%.

Data from Statistics Canada showed employment in Canada rose by 26,700 jobs in May 2024, following an addition of 90,400 increase in the previous month and surpassing forecasts of 22,500.

The unemployment rate in Canada rose to 6.2% in May from 6.1% in the earlier month, the highest since October of 2021.

Meanwhile, average hourly earnings in Canada increased by C$1.77 from the previous year to C$36.01 in May, following a 4.8% increase in April.

In the U.S., data from the Labor Department showed non-farm payroll employment surged by 272,000 jobs in May after climbing by a downwardly revised 165,000 jobs in April. Economists had expected employment to increase by about 185,000 jobs compared to the addition of 175,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.

The report also showed the annual rate of growth by average hourly employee earnings accelerated to 4.1% in May from 4% in April.

Meanwhile, the Labor Department said the unemployment rate crept up to 4% in May from 3.9% in April. The unemployment rate was expected to remain unchanged. With the unexpected increase, the unemployment rate reached its highest level since hitting a matching rate in January 2022.