MONEY IN BRIEF

Currencies

OTTAWA — These are indicative wholesale rates for foreign currency provided by the Bank of Canada on Friday. Quotations in Canadian funds. Australia dollar 0.938 Brazil real 0.3243 China renminbi 0.1923 Euro 1.5232 Hong Kong dollar 0.1677 India rupee 0.01834 Indonesia rupiah 0.000089 Japan yen 0.01185 Malaysia ringgit 0.3176 Mexico peso 0.06834 N.Z. dollar 0.8618 Norway krone 0.156 Peruvian new sol 0.3959 Russia rouble 0.01889 Saudi riyal 0.351 Singapore dollar 0.9553 South Africa rand 0.08676 South Korean won 0.001169 Sweden krona 0.1451 Switzerland franc 1.3597 Taiwanese dollar 0.04274 Thailand baht 0.04011 Turkey lira 0.2053 U.K. pound 1.7038 U.S. dollar 1.3164 Vietnam dong 0.000056

The markets today

TORONTO (CP) — Canada’s main stock market closed at a three-month low Friday amid a weak jobs report and reinforced trade concerns following a presidential tweet threatening more tariffs on China.

Friday’s session was a bit of a roller coaster ride, with U.S. President Donald Trump’s statement that he’s prepared to impose tariffs on another US$267 billion in Chinese imports having a negative impact, said Cavan Yie, portfolio manager at Manulife Asset Management.

The potential tariffs would be on top of tariffs Trump has said he will slap on US$200 billion worth of goods that ignited retaliation from Beijing on U.S. goods.

“Whenever there is some uncertainty on tariffs and how much and how soon markets kind of react pretty violently,” he said in an interview. In addition to China, uncertainty remains over NAFTA as negotiations resumed this week between Canada and the U.S. with the possibility that any deal won’t come until the end of the month. Intensifying trade wars could potentially accelerate the inevitable end of the bull run, Yie added.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 10.67 points to 16,090.27, after falling to a low of 15,994.32 on 225 million shares traded.

The decrease was led by base metals and telecom services sectors, which each fell by less than one per cent. Financials, health care, industrials, consumer discretionary, consumer staples and utilities were also down.

Information technology, gold, materials, energy and real estate were up on the day. The trading week ended with a report that Canada lost 51,600 net jobs last month that drove the national unemployment rate to six per cent, up from 5.8 per cent in July.

The negative labour figures were fuelled by the loss of 92,000 part-time positions, but the creation of 40,400 full-time jobs.

In the United States, the unemployment rate stayed at

3.9 per cent, near an 18-year low. However, wages grew more than had been forecast. In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 79.33 points at 25,916.54. The S&P 500 index was down 6.37 points at 2,871.68, while the Nasdaq composite was down 20.18 points at 7,902.54.