North American markets are set to rebound Friday, following the release of an encouraging U.S. employment report .

The U.S. Labor Department said today that nonfarm payrolls grew by a 274,000 last month — nearly a 100,000 more than financial markets expected.

The department also said employers created 93,000 more nonfarm jobs in March and February, raising the monthly average for the year so far to a healthy 211,000.

Despite the new jobs, the U.S. unemployment rate held steady at 5.2% in April. Economists had called for a 175,000 increase in payrolls and a 5.2% jobless rate for April.

Here at home, Canada’s unemployment rate edged down 0.1 percentage points in April to 6.8%, the lowest since December 2000, Statistics Canada reported today.

The government agency said employment increased by an estimated 29,000 last month, as the economy added more than 49,000 full-time positions, but lost slightly more than 20,000 part-time job

Meanwhile, Bank of Canada governor David Dodge told a breakfast meeting of the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce that the strong Canadian dollar is continuing to weigh on manufacturing and tourism.

Later this afternoon, the U.S. Federal Reserve is slated to release the consumer credit report at 15:00 ET. Economists expect consumer credit to have increased by US$6 billion in March.

In business news, General Electric said it will restate its financial statements for the years 2002 through 2004, and certain financial information for the year 2001 and each quarter in 2003 and 2004.

The company said the non-cash restatement represents less than six-tenths of 1% of GE’s earnings over this period.


On Thursday, energy and technology stocks managed to keep Toronto markets in positive territory Thursday, while U.S. markets were caught off guard after corporate bonds issued by General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. were downgraded to junk status.

At close, the S&P/TSX composite index was up just 2.98 or 0.03% to 9476.27, its fourth gain in five days. The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index was virtually unchanged, ahead 0.13 of a point or 0.01% to 1683.40.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average lost 44.26 points or 0.43% to 10340.38. The Nasdaq composite declined 0.43 or 0.02% to 1961.80 and the S&P 500 index slid 3.02 or 0.26% at 1172.63.

On Wall Street, U.S. investors were rattled after Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services cut its corporate credit ratings to junk status for both GM and Ford. Stocks closed off their afternoon lows, but the downgrades took their toll.