Canada Stocks: TSX set for weekly decline as investors assess key jobs data

Bausch Health Companies

10/10/2025 15:48

Updates with morning prices

By Ragini Mathur

Oct 10 (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index struggled to find direction on Friday, poised for modest weekly losses, while investors reduced their rate cut expectations following a surprisingly strong employment report.

At 10:15 a.m. ET (1415 GMT), Toronto's S&P/TSX composite index .GSPTSE was down 0.1% at 30,239.26 points, on track to close the week with about a 0.6% decline.

The heavyweight materials sector .GSPTTMT and information technology stocks fell by 0.4% and 0.3%, respectively, while healthcare stocks .GSPTTHC suffered the steepest loss, down 2.2%, with drugmaker Bausch Health BHC.TO dropping 4.7%.

On the data front, Canada's economy added a surprising 60,400 jobs in September, nearly reversing the previous month's losses, yet the unemployment rate remained at a nine-year high of 7.1%, excluding pandemic years.

"The jobs created this month is a lot in the absolute and compared to the consensus expectation, but we ought not to forget that it merely regains most of the jobs that were lost last month," said Brian Madden, chief investment officer at First Avenue Investment Counsel Inc.

Following the strong employment data, traders scaled back expectations for a 25-basis-point rate cut at the Bank of Canada's October 29 meeting, with the probability dropping to 53% from 72% before the report's release.

"It depends how you look at it, and we have this debate internally all the time - would you rather have interest rates 1/4 point lower or have 60,000 more people working in this country? I think I'd prefer the latter," Madden added.

The Canadian dollar CAD= strengthened 0.2% against the greenback after the data.

Back in the markets, the consumer discretionary sector .GSPTTCD emerged as the best performer, rising 0.7%, with clothing retailer Aritzia ATZ.TO surging 11.2% to an all-time high after reporting quarterly revenue above estimates.

 (Reporting by Ragini Mathur in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore)

 ((Ragini.Mathur@thomsonreuters.com;))