The S&P/TSX Composite Index enters today’s session in unchartered territory after climbing more than one per cent yesterday to close at an all-time high of 18,027.57 yesterday, and has now soared more than 60 per cent since bottoming out on March 23. Amazingly, only one index member (sorry, Aurinia Pharmaceuticals) is posting a negative return since then, while Lightspeed POS tops the leaders board with its 553.5 per cent surge. We’ll dive into the outlook for Canadian stocks at 8:20 a.m. ET with BNN Bloomberg regular John Zechner.

JOBS DAY

Canada’s economy lost jobs, as expected, last month. A net 62,600 positions were wiped out in the month. It’s the first employment erosion since the early days of the pandemic when 3 million jobs were lost in March and April. And the deterioration in December was much more significant than the 37,500 job losses that Bay Street expected. We’ll peel through all the details that matter today, including the fact that all the job losses were accounted for among part-time workers. As CIBC Chief Economist Avery Shenfeld told us this morning, “If you want to sum it up in one word: COVID.” Meanwhile, there was a surprise loss of jobs in the U.S. last month, with non-farm payrolls falling by 140,000 positions.

WESTJET SLASHES SERVICE, CEO BLASTS FEDS     

The impact of Canada's new COVID testing requirements for foreign travellers is taking a heavy toll at WestJet. The airline announced today it's reducing capacity by 30 per cent in February and March and says a mix of layoffs, unpaid leaves and reduced hours will hit 1,000 workers. CEO Ed Sims is blasting the feds for implementing "incoherent and inconsistent government policy."

IN CONVERSATION WITH JIMMY PATTISON … LATER

The Canadian business legend, who’s one of this country’s wealthiest entrepreneurs, joins Jon Erlichman on The Open next Friday to share his unique perspective on the economy and some of the hot topics that are dominating the news flow. Maybe even Bitcoin, which this morning climbed as high as US$41,092.38 per coin. Don’t miss it next 10:30 a.m. ET. In an earlier version of Today’s Chase, this interview was promoted as happening today. There was a misunderstanding about scheduling. We apologize for this.

WEEKEND READING AT BNNBLOOMBERG.CA

We’ve got a bunch of stories in the digital pipeline today:

-David George-Cosh will have a writeup on his interview with Canopy Growth CEO David Klein, who spoke at length about the stateside growth potential as excitement builds about what awaits the pot sector with Democrats in control of U.S. Congress.

-Dale Jackson’s weekly column is focused on the usefulness (or not) of money market funds in this ultra low-rate environment.

-We’ve also got a feature coming on the outlook for Calgary’s commercial real estate market as that city grapples with the one-two punch of COVID and a years-long oil downturn.

-And we’re working on a piece that probes why so many Canadian CEOs are choosing not to comment on Wednesday’s chaos in D.C. Full credit to Enbridge’s Al Monaco, Suncor’s Mark Little, and Sun Life’s Dean Connor for speaking out. More than two dozen others who we reached out to (all with a presence in the U.S.) either declined or haven’t responded. Worth noting more than two-thirds of respondents to the latest BNNBloomberg.ca poll say they support CEOs who speak out.

OTHER NOTABLE STORIES

-A notable call on Bank of Nova Scotia: Credit Suisse has downgraded BNS to underperform, and lowered its price target to $64 from $66, due to “continuing near-term headwinds” for Scotia’s international unit and the stock’s recent rally.

-Boeing has agreed to pay US$2.5 billion to resolve the U.S. Justice Department’s criminal case against the plane maker over the 737 Max’s disastrous sequence of events. Investors don’t seem to care, with the stock basically unchanged pre-market – likely because Boeing made it clear that it has sufficiently reserved to cover “737 Max customer considerations”.  

-We’ll watch shares of Sierra Metals today after the TSX-listed miner put itself up for sale with the launch of a strategic review process.

-Domtar will be another stock to watch after it announced the sale of its personal care unit to American Industrial Partners for US$920 million – roughly two-thirds of which will be used to pay down debt. US$300 million will be used to buy back shares.

NOTABLE RELEASES/EVENTS

-Notable data: Canadian labour force survey, U.S. non-farm payrolls

Every morning BNN Bloomberg's Managing Editor Noah Zivitz writes a ‘chase note’ to BNN Bloomberg's editorial staff listing the stories and events that will be in the spotlight that day. Have it delivered to your inbox before the trading day begins by heading to www.bnnbloomberg.ca/subscribe.