Canadian Stocks Recover From Early Weakness To Close Mostly Higher

(RTTNews) - After recovering from an early move to the downside, Canadian stocks moved mostly higher over the course of the trading session on Monday.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index fell as low as 20,151.92 in early trading but ended the day up 79.13 points or 0.4 percent at 20,275.82.

Healthcare stocks showed a substantial move to the upside on the day, driving the S&P/TSX Capped Health Care Index up by 2.7 percent.

Telecom, consumer discretionary and energy stocks also saw some strength on the day, while gold stocks moved lower along with the price of the precious metal.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report, which was released while the markets were closed for Good Friday, showed employment in the U.S. increased roughly in line with economist estimates in the month of March.

The report said non-farm payroll employment climbed by 236,000 jobs in March after jumping by an upwardly revised 326,000 jobs in February.

Economists had expected employment to rise by about 240,000 jobs compared to the addition of 311,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.

Meanwhile, the Labor Department said the unemployment rate edged down to 3.5 percent in March from 3.6 percent in February. The unemployment rate was expected to be unchanged.

On the heels of the report, CME Group's FedWatch Tool is currently indicating a 71.7 percent chance the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates by a quarter point next month.

Traders were also looking ahead to key U.S. inflation data later in the week along with reports on retail sales and industrial production as well as the minutes of the latest Federal Reserve meeting.