TORONTO — Stock markets in Canada and the United States fell on Friday after the release of labour data from both economies.
Statistics Canada reported that the previously hot labour market stalled out to end the summer with a loss of 42,000 jobs in August, while the unemployment rate held steady at 6.4 per cent.
Sébastien Mc Mahon, chief economist at iA Financial Group, said it’s important to look at the overall trend.
“Even though the headline looks kind of weak, that still supports the view that Canada’s economy is going strong,” said Mc Mahon.
August’s losses fell short of economists’ expectations for a gain of 15,000 positions.
“The way to frame it is that you need to look at total hours worked always, because this is what goes into production. So it’s not just people, it’s hours at the end of the day that count and the three-month annualized change in hours in Canada is very solid,” Mc Mahon said.
He said Canada’s benchmark index was weighed down by gold prices, which moved lower due to positive U.S. labour data causing investors to reprice the odds of higher interest rates from the U.S. Federal Reserve in the near term.
The United States government reported that employers added 162,000 jobs to their payrolls last month, far more than expected. That could give the Fed leeway to raise its benchmark short-term interest rate to fight inflation.
“U.S. rates are higher pretty much across the curve, that’s of course not positive for gold,” Mc Mahon said.
The S&P/TSX composite index was down 119.32 points at 36,513.80. The December gold contract was down US$63.30 at US$4,476.60 an ounce.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 271.86 points at 53,414.25. The S&P 500 index was down 29.11 points at 7,718.60, while the Nasdaq composite was down 77.07 points at 26,506.99.
The yield on the two year Treasury climbed to 4.37 per cent.
Separately, Lululemon Athletica Inc.’s shares sank 17.38 per cent a day after the retailer revealed a slump in its financial performance and slashed its guidance for the year.
Lululemon announced Thursday after markets closed that its second-quarter profit, revenue and comparable sales were down from a year ago, prompting it to downgrade its expectations for the remainder of the year.
The Canadian dollar traded for 72.25 cents US compared with 72.52 cents US on Thursday.
The October crude oil contract was up 18 cents US at US$91.48 per barrel.
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Daniel Johnson, The Canadian Press
With files from The Associated Press
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 4, 2026.
