North American stocks will likely open mixed Friday as investors react to jobs reports from Canada and the United States.

Canada’s unemployment rate fell a tenth of a percentage point to 6.6% in October as the economy churned out 68,700 new jobs, Statistics Canada said today.

The number of new jobs far exceeded economists’ expectations of around 20,000 new positions.

The Canadian dollar rose 0.31 of a cent to US84.92¢ on the news.

South of the border, the U.S. Labor Department said October non-farm payrolls increased by 56,000 jobs after an upwardly revised 8,000-job decrease in September.

The U.S. unemployment rate slipped to 5% last month, down from September’s 5.1%.

However, the October report was weaker than economists had expected. They had called for an increase of 124,000 jobs and a 5.1% jobless rate in October

In business news, Hudson’s Bay Co. is cutting about 825 management and administrative jobs and shuffling its senior management team to save about $45 million a year. The American firm that’s launched a takeover bid for Canada’s oldest company called the timing suspect.

On the mergers-and-acquisitions front, Canada’s largest wine maker Vincor rejected another offer from Constellation Brands, the most recent bid valued at $1.4 billion.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has had a court freeze US$3 million in assets alleging insider trading in advance of Barrick Gold Corp.’s hostile takeover offer for Placer Dome this week.

Crude-oil prices fell 62¢ to US$61.16 a barrel in early trading Friday, a day after oil futures jumped more than $2 to nearly $62 a barrel for the first time in a week as traders braced for winter fuel demand.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei 225 advanced past the 14,000 level for the first time since 2001 behind banking-sector gains, adding 1.3% to close at 14,075.96.

Markets in Europe were mostly lower, but London’s FTSE 100 bucked the downward trend, climbing 0.4% recently.

Toronto stocks enjoyed another strong session Thursday, as investors continued to buy into the energy sector.

The S&P/TSX composite index finished up 86.93, or 0.82%, to 10,672.58. The senior exchange is up 3.5% so far this week.

The junior S&P/TSX venture exchange finished up 11.51, or 0.57%, to 2,015.48

In New York, positive economic news was dampened by surging energy prices.

The Dow Jones composite index gained 49.86 points to 10,522.59, the Nasdaq composite Index climbed 15.91 points to 2,160.22 while the S&P 500 Index was up 5.18 points at 1,219.94.

In U.S. economic news, outgoing Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan told Congress that the financial damage from a series of devastating hurricanes to the U.S. economy would likely prove transitory.