A.M. market numbers: November 6, 2009

| North American markets | International markets | Bonds | Currency | Commodities |

North American stock markets appeared headed for a lower opening as employment news from Canada and the United States came in worse than expected.

The Canadian reading was particularly shocking: Statistics Canada said more than 43,000 jobs were lost last month, a huge miss from economists’ consensus which forecast the addition of 10,000 jobs.

And the unemployment rate jumped two-tenths of a point to 8.6%, against expectations that it would stay unchanged.

"The positive was that there was a net gain in full-time jobs, with part-time work dropping 60,000," said CIBC World Markets chief economist Avery Shenfeld.

"On the negative side was that heavy job shedding at both private and public sector employers were offset by a gain of 28,000 self-employed positions, often an indication of lower-paying work."

And in the U.S., the Labour Department reported that 190,000 jobs were lost last month, against estimates of about 175,000, while the jobless rate came in at 10.2%, up sharply from 9.8%.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial futures moved 55 points lower to 9,899, the Nasdaq futures lost 4.75 points to 1,714.5 while the S&P 500 futures were down 3.9 points to 1,059.3.

The Canadian dollar was down sharply in the wake of the report, falling 0.64 of a cent to 93.19 cents US.

The December crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell $1.22 to US$78.44 a barrel.

Gold moved closer to a record $1,100 an ounce with the December bullion contract on the Nymex ahead $5.50 to US$1,094.80 an ounce while December copper was unchanged at US$2.95 a pound.

On the earnings front, Suncor Energy Inc. is reporting third-quarter net earnings of $929 million, or 74 cents per common share, in its first quarterly earnings report since merging with Petro-Canada. That compares to net earnings of $815 million, or 87 cents per common share, in the year-ago period. But Suncor’s operating earnings plunged in the quarter to $288 million, compared to $810 million a year ago.

Air Canada reported a quarterly profit of 4277 million or $2.44 a share in the third quarter, thanks to lower fuel prices and foreign exchange gains. That was an improvement from a year-ago net loss of $132 million or $1.32 per share. Air Canada’s operating revenues totalled $2.7 billion for the quarter, down from $3.1 billion last year.

Telus Corp. reported that net income fell to $280 million or 88 cents per share in the third quarter, down from $286 million or 89 cents per share a year earlier. Operating revenue slipped by 1.6% to $2.41 billion from $2.45 billion.

Overseas, Asian stocks climbed ahead of the release of the American jobs data. Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average rose 0.7% and Hong Kong’s index gained 1.6%.

London’s FTSE 100 index moved up 0.27%, the DAX gained 0.17% and the Paris CAC 40 was flat.

(The Canadian Press)

North American markets

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Dow Jones	10,005.96	+203.82 or +2.08%	+14.01%
S&P 500	1,066.63	+20.13 or +1.92%	+18.09%
NASDAQ	2,105.32	+49.80 or +2.42%	+33.50%
TSX Composite	11,180.70	+109.50 or +0.99%	+24.40%

International markets

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	Open	Change	YTD
Nikkei	9,789.35	+71.91 or +0.74%	+10.49%
Hang Seng	21,829.72	+350.64 or +1.63%	+51.73%
SENSEX	16,158.28	+94.38 or +0.59%	+67.49%
FTSE 100	5,138.18	+12.54 or +0.24%	+15.88%
CAC 40	3,712.18	+3.45 or +0.09%	+15.36%
DAX	5,490.40	+9.48 or +0.17%	+14.14%

Bonds

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Bonds	$Current	$Previous	%Yield
Cdn. 10-year bond	101.88	102.28	3.52
Cdn. 30-year bond	116.20	116.95	4.02
U.S. 10-year bond	100.92	100.84	3.51
U.S. 30-year bond	101.75	101.50	4.39

Currency

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BoC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.9319	0.9397
US $	1.0731	1.0642

Euro Spot Rate	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.6280	0.6320
Euro	1.5924	1.5823

Commodities

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Gold	AM	PM
London Gold Fix ($US)	$1,095.00	$1,089.00

Oil	Open	Change
WTI Crude Future (US)	$79.25	-$0.37 or -0.46%

(11/06/09)