TORONTO - The Toronto stock market capped a losing week with a negative close with buyers discouraged about enormous job losses in the U.S. last month.
New York indexes turned around in the last half hour of the session to close slightly higher amid some relief that the February non-farms payroll report wasn't worse.
Toronto's S&P/TSX composite index closed down 37.7 points to 7,591.47 after the U.S. Labour Department said the economy shed 651,000 jobs last month -- just slightly above expectations -- while the U.S. unemployment rate rose to 8.1 per cent from 7.6 per cent in January.
Canada's jobless rate is 7.2 per cent but could shoot higher next Friday when Statistics Canada reports the February employment numbers.
The Dow Jones industrials gained 32.5 points to 6,626.94 as revised data show U.S. job losses in December totalled 681,000, more than 100,000 or 18 per cent higher than originally reported.
About 655,000 jobs were lost in January, 57,000 more than originally reported.
The Canadian dollar closed up 0.11 cent to 77.73 cents US while the April crude oil contract in New York rose $1.91 to US$45.52 a barrel
The TSX finished the week down 531.55 points or 6.5 per cent to its worst level since the fall of 2003 while the Dow industrials fell 436 points or 6.17 per cent to 1997 lows.
