TSX to head lower after weaker jobs data, concerns about Chinese economy

TORONTO - The Toronto stock market is likely to move lower when trading begins Friday morning, after the latest Canadian jobs numbers fell short of expectations, producing a big loss rather than the small gain that had been forecast.

Statistics Canada reported that the unemployment rate rose one-tenth of a point to 7.3 per cent in July as the economy shed 30,400 jobs. The outcome was notably worse than the addition of about 6,000 jobs that analysts had expected.

The Canadian dollar was at 100.35 cents US, down 0.46 of a cent.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial futures fell 52 points to 13,086 and the broader S&P futures gave back 6.4 points at 1,394.20. Nasdaq futures were down 8.25 of a point at 2,709.50.

Traders have been revisiting their concerns about the direction of the global economy after a series of economic data out of China showed that the world's second-largest economy is facing a slowdown.

Those worries have spread across industries and weighed on commodity prices.

The September crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange was down $1.56 to US$91.80 a barrel.

September copper moved down 5.9 cents to US$3.366 a pound while December gold fell $9.50 to US$1,610.70 an ounce.

The Chinese economic figures causing most concern on Friday was the trade data for July. Exports rose just one per cent over a year earlier, sharply below forecasts of five per cent, while import growth fell to 4.7 per cent from the previous month's 6.3 per cent, also below expectations.

The trade surplus with the 27-nation European Union, China's biggest trading partner, narrowed by 37.9 per cent to $10.8 billion, reflecting sluggish demand in Europe, which is wrestling with a debt crisis and recession.

The figures come a day after China reported a slowdown in auto sales and factory output, are likely to heap the pressure on Beijing to take more measures to boost economic growth.

In Europe, Germany's DAX fell 0.3 per cent to 6,944 while the CAC-40 in France was 0.7 per cent lower at 3,433. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was 0.1 per cent lower at 5,845.

Earlier in Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 1 per cent to close at 8,891.44. Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 0.7 per cent to 20,136.12 and South Korea's Kospi bounced closed 0.3 per cent higher at 1,946.40.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2012