Market numbers: December 4, 2009

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

North American markets headed for a strong open after American jobs data for November blew past expectations.

The U.S. Labour Department said that 11,000 people lost their jobs last month, far below the 120,000 that had been expected. The jobless rate came in at 10%, down from 10.2% in October.

And there were major revisions to earlier data – 159,000 fewer Americans lost their jobs in September and October than originally reported.

The news pushed U.S. futures sharply higher with the Dow industrials up 108 points to 10,460, the Nasdaq futures jumped 24 points to 1,804.25 while the S&P 500 futures ahead 13.3 points to 1,111.3.

There was also solid employment news from Canada, where 79,000 jobs were created last month. Statistics Canada said the showing pulled Canada’s unemployment rate down one-tenth of a point to 8.5% in November. Economists had been looking for a drop in employment of 43,000.

Full-time jobs rose by 39,000, the third month of gains in a row, and part-time jobs also went up by 40,000 after two months of losses.

“The solid November report offsets the prior month’s disappointing drop,” said BMO Capital Markets economist Benjamin Reitzes.

“The average 18,000 gain over the past two months probably best characterizes the state of Canada’s job market, and points to an economy emerging from recession.”

The Canadian dollar was up 0.92 of a cent to 95.73 cents US following the report.

Investors also took in another bit of positive earnings news from the financial sector, this time from Royal Bank (TSX:RY). Canada’s largest bank reported that its net income rose 10% in the fourth quarter to $1.2 billion. The bank credited strong performance from Canadian banking, capital markets, wealth management and insurance, which offset losses in its international operations.

Revenues for the quarter totalled $7.5 billion, up from $5.1 billion last year.

Provisions for credit losses rose to $883 million, up from $619 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008, due in part to credit issues in its U.S. banking business, where consumers struggled to repay debt in a recessionary environment.

Oil prices also headed higher in the wake of the U.S. employment report.

The December crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange gained 65 cents to US$77.11 a barrel, following two days of losses resulting from a report Wednesday that showed a big buildup in crude inventories in the U.S. last week.

The February bullion contract on the Nymex lost $16.30 to US$1,202 an ounce while March copper was unchanged at US$3.24 a pound.

Later this morning, the U.S. government reports on October factory orders. The Commerce Department is likely to say factory orders remained flat in October after rising 0.9% in September, as demand increased for durable goods, and nondurable goods such as chemicals and energy products.

Overseas, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed down 0.3% but Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average rose 0.5%.

London’s FTSE index was down 0.64%, Frankfurt’s DAX was off 0.52% while the Paris CAC 40 gained 0.88%.

(The Canadian Press)

North American markets (previous close)

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Dow Jones	10,366.15	-86.53 or -0.83%	+18.11%
S&P 500	1,099.92	-9.32 or -0.84%	+21.77%
NASDAQ	2,173.14	-11.89 or -0.54%	+37.80%
TSX Composite	11,629.01	-150.72 or -1.28%	+29.39%

International markets

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	Open	Change	YTD
Nikkei	10,022.59	+44.92 or +0.45%	+13.13%
Hang Seng	22,498.15	-55.72 or -0.25%	+56.37%
SENSEX	17,101.54	-84.14 or -0.49%	+77.27%
FTSE 100	5,279.43	-33.577 or -0.63%	+19.06%
CAC 40	3,779.25	-19.86 or -0.52%	+17.44%
DAX	5,741.46	-28.89 or -0.50%	+19.36%

Bonds

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Bonds	$Current	$Previous	%Yield
Cdn. 10-year bond	104.18	104.11	3.23
Cdn. 30-year bond	119.05	118.97	3.87
U.S. 10-year bond	100.01	100.55	3.37
U.S. 30-year bond	100.72	102.03	4.33

Currency

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BoC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.9573	0.9481
US $	1.0446	1.0547

Euro Spot Rate	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.6353	0.6290
Euro	1.5741	1.5899

Commodities

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Gold	AM	PM
London Gold Fix ($US)	$1,203.25	$1,208.75

Oil	Open	Change
WTI Crude Future (US)	$75.83	-$0.63 or -0.82%

(12/04/09)