Friday was a positive day in the North America stock markets as the S&P 500 rose 0.85% and Toronto rose 0.65%.
Statistics Canada reported the labour Force survey results for June. The report was positive with 32,000 jobs added. More people returned to the labour force (and not that this is ALWAYS seasonally adjusted, so it is not about students available for work in the summer) and so the unemployment rate increased to 6.0% nationally. By historical averages that is a low unemployment rate. Of course the many naysayers will always find negative things int eh jobs reports (too many part time, too many government…).
There seldom seems to be too many dull weeks in the markets. This week we expect a rate increase by the bank of Canada and we will start to get Q2 earnings reports from America companies. The U.S. companies tend to report faster but the downside is they mostly give only partial details with full details to follow a few weeks later. In Canada we get the full earnings release with press release, financial statements and management discussion and analysis all at once. I prefer the Canadian system.