P.M. market numbers: October 8, 2009

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

The Toronto stock market ended Thursday with its fourth consecutive triple-digit gain, as a weaker U.S. dollar helped drive up commodities prices and sent the loonie soaring to its highest levels in more than a year.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 134.63 to 11,484.51, while the Canadian dollar wrapped the day at 95.04, a gain of 0.91 of a cent, its highest close since Sept. 29, 2008.

A key factor behind the enthusiastic gains was a weakening U.S. dollar, which sent investors running for cover in commodities futures markets.

Gold prices have especially felt the shift and logged three consecutive sessions of record highs as a result.

On the Nymex, the December gold contract ended the session $11.90 higher to US$1056.30 an ounce, which helped send the TSX gold sector 0.6% higher.

Also on the upswing was the energy sector, which climbed up 2.9%, as the November crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose $2.12 to US$71.69 a barrel.

In the U.S., investors spent much of the session grappling with the start of earnings season, which got off to a bang after the closing bell on Wednesday with a report from Alcoa Inc. The U.S. aluminum giant surprised the market with a profit of US$77 million tied to cost-cutting and rising sales to automakers.

On Thursday, there was also encouraging U.S. economic data which said the number of Americans making new claims for jobless benefits fell last week to the lowest level since early January, as employers cut fewer workers.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrials moved 61.29 points higher to 9,786.87.

The Nasdaq composite index rose 13.60 points to 2,123.93 while the S&P 500 index gained 7.90 points to 1,065.48.

(THE CANADIAN PRESS)

North American markets

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	Close	Change	YTD
Dow Jones	9,786.87	+61.29 or +0.63%	+11.51%
S&P 500	1,065.48	+7.90 or +0.75%	+17.96%
NASDAQ	2,123.93	+13.60 or +0.64%	+34.68%
TSX Composite	11,484.51	+134.63 or +1.19%	+27.78%

International markets

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	Close	Change	YTD
Nikkei	9,832.47	+32.87 or +0.34%	+10.98%
Hang Seng	21,492.90	+251.31 or +1.18%	+49.39%
SENSEX	16,843.54	+36.88 or +0.22%	+74.59%
FTSE 100	5,154.64	+45.74 or +0.90%	+16.25%
CAC 40	3,806.81	+50.40 or +1.34%	+18.30%
DAX	5,716.54	+75.79 or +1.34%	+18.84%

Bonds

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Bonds	$Current	$Previous	%Yield
Cdn. 10-year bond	103.31	103.98	3.34
Cdn. 30-year bond	119.00	119.90	3.87
U.S. 10-year bond	103.14	103.80	3.25
U.S. 30-year bond	107.09	107.72	4.09

Currency

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BoC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.9504	0.9413
US $	1.0522	1.0624

Euro Spot Rate	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.6430	0.6412
Euro	1.5552	1.5596

Commodities

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Gold	AM	PM
London Gold Fix ($US)	$1054.75	$1045.00

Oil	Close	Change
WTI Crude Future (US)	$71.44	+$1.87 or +2.69%

(10/09/09)