TSX Closer: Index Jumps More Than 500 Points Despite Weak Canadian Jobs Data

04:23 PM EDT, 10/09/2026 (MT Newswires) -- The S&P/TSX Composite Index surged more than 500 points on Friday, driven by gains in base metals, technology and financial stocks, even as weaker-than-expected domestic jobs data pointed to further softness in the labor market. The index closed up 519.24 points, or 1.5%, to 35,664.62 with most sectors advancing. Base metals led advancers, up 3.0%, followed by information technology and financial that closed up 2.9% and 1.2%, respectively. Shares in telecom and healthcare closed down 4.2% and 0.7%, respectively. In commodities, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and Brent crude edged higher on Friday as oil production shutdowns in the US Gulf of Mexico ahead of Hurricane Isaias supported prices, while easing concerns over a further escalation of the conflict between the US and Iran limited gains. November WTI crude oil contract settled up $0.36, or 0.4%, to $91.85 per barrel, while December Brent oil was last seen up $0.06, or 0.1%, to $104.34 per barrel. Whereas December Comex gold futures jumped 1.5%, or $62.80, to $4,219.80 per ounce at last look. In currencies, the US dollar edged higher 0.3% against the Canadian dollar, with USD/CAD at 1.4263 at last look. On the economic front, fresh data showed further weakness in Canada's labour market. Canada lost 68,000 jobs in September, a 0.3% monthly decline, following a further drop of 42,000 in August, while the unemployment rate rose 0.1 percentage point to 6.5%, according to the country's statistical agency on Friday. The jobs drop was unexpected, as a Bloomberg survey saw a 10,000 consensus gain in September, while the rise in the unemployment rate to 6.5% was in line with expectations. The decline was driven by a 48,000 drop in employment among young people aged 15 to 24, down 1.8% monthly, and a 28,000 decrease among women aged 25 to 54, down 0.4%, wrote Statistics Canada in its Labour Force Survey (LFS) release. "While the weakness in today's employment data is likely more a reflection of data volatility than the impact of new US tariffs, the softness supports our call that the Bank of Canada will remain patient and keep interest rates on hold for now," CIBC Capital Markets wrote. Ultimately, this report is going to pour some more cold water on near-term rate hike expectations for the BoC, TD Economics said. "Markets are currently pricing 27% odds of a hike in October, and 88% for December, the latter down from being fully priced yesterday ... Given this backdrop we expect the BoC to remain data-dependent and stay on hold in October," Andrew Hencic, director and senior economist at TD, said.