TORONTO -- November started off with a bang as North American markets surged on resilience of the global economy and positive trade signals.
"October has been a strong month and when you look at November it's starting out quite well," said Anish Chopra, managing director with Portfolio Management Corp.
The S&P/TSX composite index had its best day in nearly two months by closing up 110.91 points at 16,594.07.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 301.13 points at 27,347.36, just 51 points off its record high set in July. The S&P 500 index was up 29.35 points at 3,066.91, a record closing, while the Nasdaq composite was ahead 94.04 points to set a new record of 8,386.40.
Markets rose on strong U.S. jobs data, the best Chinese manufacturing data for October in more than two years and U.S. suggestions that phase one of an agreement with China could be signed in mid-November.
"The fact is you've got strong jobs numbers in U.S. just means you've got a strong economic backdrop both in the United States plus the manufacturing data from China was positive so you still have strong economic backdrops in both of the world's two largest economies," he said in an interview.
In Canada, factory activity expanded at the fastest pace in about eight months.
The Canadian dollar traded at 76.01 cents US, compared with Thursday's average of 75.99 cents US.
Seven of the 11 major sectors of the TSX climbed, led by energy, which increased 3.1 per cent on higher crude oil prices.
The December crude contract was up US$2.02 at US$56.20 per barrel and the December natural gas contract was up 8.1 cents at US$2.71 per mmBTU.
That benefited Encana Corp. and Crescent Point Energy Corp., which saw their shares gain 5.4 and 4.6 per cent, respectively.
Shares in oil and gas producer Pengrowth Energy Corp. tumbled by 75 per cent on Friday after it announced a deal to be acquired by Cona Resources Ltd. for five cents per share and the assumption of debt.
Oil prices were higher as positive economic signals diffused concerns about a global recession.
"You've got both countries doing well in their own home markets plus progress on the trade front and that's supportive for the price of oil," said Chopra.
Industrials, technology and health care were also higher.
Materials led on the downside with Barrick Gold Corp. losing 2.3 per cent as the price of gold decreased.
The December gold contract was down $3.40 at US$1,511.40 an ounce and the December copper contract was up 1.5 cents at US$2.65 per pound.
Other safety sectors, including consumer staples, telecommunications and utilities, also fell.
Markets were up for the week amid hope that last December's big selloff won't repeat itself.
"There certainly doesn't seem to be the data that's going to bring us to what it was like last year," said Chopra.
"There's no reason to believe that the markets can't still rise given the economic data but there's always an outlier event or something that can change things but the economic data is certainly supportive of it."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 1, 2019.
