The Canadian Press

The Toronto stock market advanced Friday as investors dealt with dismal employment data from Canada and the United States and as gold stocks continued to run ahead amid record high bullion prices.

The S&P/TSX composite index gained 69.72 points to 11,250.42.

The Canadian dollar was down 0.83 of a cent to US93¢ after Statistics Canada said more than 43,000 jobs were lost in Canada last month, a huge miss compared with the consensus by economists, who had forecast the addition of 10,000 jobs. As a result, the unemployment rate jumped two-tenths of a point to 8.6%, against expectations that it would stay unchanged.

And in the U.S., the Labour Department reported that 190,000 jobs were lost last month, against estimates of about 175,000. The U.S. jobless rate came in at 10.2%, up sharply from 9.8%.

“The headline number was a miss but it’s important to look through the numbers,” said Jeff Bradacs, senior investment analyst at MFC Global Investment Management.

“What we saw in the previous two months was positive revisions — September 260,000 job losses to 219,000, August from minus 210,000 to minus 154,000. So, through the numbers, we saw some positive revisions despite the headlines.”

Bradacs added that recent readings on the U.S. manufacturing and service sectors have shown expansion and corporate earnings were “fairly strong” for the most recent quarter, with about 80% of companies beating expectations.

The Toronto market ran up 339.67 points or 3.11% this week, clawing back a large chunk of last week’s 4.14% slide that was caused by investor unease over whether the strength of the economic rebound justifies the huge gains racked up since early March.

The TSX gold sector alone ran up 11.3% this week as the precious metal continued to move further into record territory as the October jobs data raised hopes that interest rates won’t rise until well into next year while the U.S. dollar declined.

On Friday, the precious metals component advanced 3.28% as the December bullion contract on the Nymex climbed $6.40 to a record high close of US$1,095.70 an ounce after going as high as US$1,101.90. Goldcorp Inc. (TSX:G) gained $1.30 to C$44.48 and Barrick Gold (TSX:ABX) ran up $1.35 to $44.83.

Auto parts giant Magna International (TSX:MG.A) also lifted the TSX, up $6.69 or 14.2% to $53.76. The stock is up 25.93% since Tuesday’s close. On Wednesday, General Motors Co. said it would keep its European Opel unit and restructure it instead of selling a 55% stake to Magna and its partner, Russian lender Sberbank.

And the stock got an extra boost Friday, after Magna reported a third-quarter profit of $51 million and investors took in a report that the company was in talks with GM and Russian giant OAO GAZ about building an auto assembly plant in Russia.

Rail stocks helped take the industrial sector up 1.3%. Canadian Pacific Railway (TSX:CNR) advanced 67¢ to $50.29.

The tech sector rose 1.64% with Research In Motion Ltd. (TSX:RIM) up $1.55 to $63.20

The TSX energy sector was ahead 0.3% even as oil prices retreated on the latest indication of a weak U.S. economy. The December crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell $2.19 to US$77.43 a barrel. EnCana Corp. (TSX:ECA) stepped back 65¢ to $61.12.

The TSX Venture Exchange moved up 9.07 points to 1,340.62.

New York markets were weak as the Dow Jones industrials was up 17.46 points to 10,023.42, gaining 3.19% this week.

The Nasdaq composite index was up 7.12 points to 2,112.44 and the S&P 500 index gained 2.67 points to 1,069.3.

Toronto investors took in earnings reports from a variety of major Canadian corporations.

Telus Corp. (TSX:T) reported its net income fell to $280 million or 88¢ per share in the third quarter, down from $286 million or 89¢ a year earlier. Telus shares moved 37¢ lower to $33.61 as it also said it now expects 2009 revenue to be between $9.6 billion and $9.7 billion, which is lower than last May’s guidance of between $9.7 billion and $9.9 billion.

Suncor Energy Inc. (TSX:SU) reported third-quarter net earnings of $929 million, or 74¢ per common share, in its first quarterly earnings report since merging with Petro-Canada. That compares with net earnings of $815 million, or 87¢ in the year-ago period. Suncor’s operating earnings plunged in the quarter to $288 million, compared with $810 million a year ago but its shares were ahead 3¢ at $35.40.

@page_break@Air Canada (TSX:AC.B) reported a profit of $277 million or $2.44 a share in the third quarter, thanks to lower fuel prices and foreign exchange gains. That was an improvement from last year’s net loss of $132 million or $1.32 per share. Air Canada’s operating revenues totalled $2.7 billion for the quarter, down from $3.1 billion last year. Its shares edged up 2¢ to $1.16.

Brookfield Asset Management Inc. (TSX:BAM.A) said net income fell to US$112 million or 17¢ per diluted share in the third quarter, down from US$171 million or 27¢ per share a year earlier. Revenue declined to just under $3 billion from $3.2 billion in the third quarter of 2008. Revenue was in line with analyst estimates but EPS beat expectations by 3¢ per share. Brookfield shares gave back 43¢ to $22.77.