Some good economic news and strong performance by energy and financial stocks sent Canadian markets higher Friday, while U.S. markets managed to rally late in the day to extend their winning streak.

At close on Friday, the S&P/TSX was up 89.93 or 1.02% at 8870.97, while the TSX Venture exchange finished up 7.11 points or 0.44% at 1630.02. For the week, the S&P/TSX was up 10.3%, while the TSXV lost almost 2%.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended up 22.93 points, or 0.23% at 10027.47. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 2.76 points or 0.24% to 1130.20. But the technology-laced Nasdaq Composite Index dipped 0.75 of a point or 0.04% to close at 1974.99. All the major indices rose for the week, with the Dow gaining 2.76%, while the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 each rose 3.13%.

The Canadian dollar finished above the US82¢ level for the first time in more than 12 years. The loonie closed at 82.10 cents US, up 0.38¢, its highest close since September 1992. The jump came after Statistics Canada reported Canadian gross domestic product increased by 0.5% in August after a 0.2% advance in July. That was better than the 0.3% increase economists had expected. July growth was revised upwards from 0.1%.

In Toronto, all but one of the S&P/TSX sub-indices were up, with energy (up 1.73%) financials (1.34%) and gold (2.02%) showing the biggest gains.

One of the biggest movers was Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. It surged $27.02 or 16.77% to $179.99 despite its announcement that it lost US$108.9 million in the third quarter, mostly because of hurricane-related claims. It also said would issue US$300 million of shares.

Other big movers on Friday included, Bombardier B shares, which jumped 17¢ or 6.46% to $2,80, and Nortel Networks, which added 4¢ or 0.98% to $4.12.

In New York markets were little changed despite positive economic data as the uncertainty surrounding Tuesday’s elections discouraged buyers.

In some of the final economic news to hit the tape before the Nov. 2 vote, the Commerce Department reported that gross domestic product grew at a less-than-expected 3.7% annual rate in the third quarter, after growing 3.3% in the second quarter. Economists were expecting the economy to grow 4.3%. However, the University of Michigan said its consumer sentiment index rose to 91.7 points in late October from 87.5 earlier in the month. Economists were expecting a decrease to about 85.0 in late October. And a survey of purchasing managers showed stronger-than-anticipated expansion of business activity in the Chicago region in October.

For the month of October, the Dow fell 0.5%, the Nasdaq rose 4.1%, while the S&P 500 rose 1.4%.

The price of crude oil topped the US$51 mark again after falling for most of the day in Asian trading Friday on a surprising midweek U.S. petroleum stocks report and China’s latest moves to cool its economy. Crude for December on the benchmark New York Mercantile Exchange rose 84¢ to US$51.76.