Toronto stocks closed lower Friday, as a weak U.S. employment report spurred investors to lock-in profits. The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 34.23 points at 8,352.19. For the week, the benchmark index rose 0.7%.

Good news about the Canadian employment picture failed to spark a rally on Bay Street.

Statistics Canada said the country’s unemployment rate in December eased to 7.4% from 7.5% in November and 53,100 jobs were created.

That contrasts with a mere 1,000 new jobs in the United States last month, far short of forecasts for a gain of 130,000 and an indication the U.S. recovery has yet to translate into sustained jobs growth.

Overall, six of the TSX’s 10 subgroups were down, including industrials, which fell 1.14%, while the materials and health-care groups both notched more than 1% declines.

Among industrials, CP Ships fell $1.16 to $25.09, while a slew of big names fell more than 1%, including Canadian Pacific Railway and Bombardier Inc..

Energy shares rose 0.94% over concerns that that cold weather across North America would eat into crude oil stocks.

Nexen shares gained $1.38 to $48.43, while Canadian Natural Resources added $1.10 to $66.70.

The tech sector rose 0.43% even as Nortel Networks snapped a six-day win streak to end down 3¢ at $7.83.

Open Text rose $3.21 to $31.86, a day after it released preliminary results that were stronger than expected.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index bucked Friday’s downtrend, rising 17.71 points to finish at 1,804.57.

On Wall Street, stocks closed lower in a late-session pullback after a weaker-than-expected December employment report sparked concern about the ability of the U.S economy to create new jobs.

The Dow Jones industrial average plunged 133.55 points or 1.3% to close at 10,459.89.

The Nasdaq composite index put an end to a run of five consecutive sessions of gains to close down 13.33 points at 2,086.92.

The S&P 500 was down 10.07 points at 1,122,85.

Despite Friday’s performance, all the indices were up for the week. The Dow advanced 0.5%, the S&P rose 1.2% and the Nasdaq was up 4%.

The Canadian dollar continued its ascent after the weak U.S. jobs data sent the greenback falling on international currency markets.

The loonie gained 0.58¢to close at US78.67¢. That’s its highest close since May 1993.