The Daily Chase: TSX at all-time highs, Canada jobs number surpasses expectations

Here are five things you need to know this morning.

TSX at all-time highs: The Toronto Stock Exchange’s main index set new all-time intraday and closing highs yesterday, and could be poised for more gains today as a mostly positive earnings season winds toward a close. After spending much of 2023 lagging markets in New York riding the tech sector wave, it’s nice to see Canada’s benchmark stock index cranking out gains. The index is now up by almost 20 per cent since November. While investors have a slew of earnings to digest today in setting the direction for equities, in terms of market-moving events, the biggest dot on the calendar for the day is probably the next item on our chase list.

Canada beats expectations on jobs number: Canada added 90,000 jobs in April, Statistics Canada reported Friday, far better than the roughly 20,000 that economists were expecting. The stronger-than-expected showing caused markets to reprice the odds of a rate cut next month, although they’re still about a 50-50 chance. Prior to the jobs report, the odds were nearly two in three of a cut.

Novavax shares double on vaccine licensing deal with Sanofi: Shares in vaccine maker Novavax are soaring in premarket trading on Friday after the company signed a deal with larger rival Sanofi to commercialize a combined influenza and COVID vaccine. The deal gives Novavax, which has market cap of about US$600 million, an instant $500 million in upfront payments, followed by another $700 million down the line if certain targets are met. Sanofi is also taking an equity stake in the company of about five per cent, Novavax said. The company’s N.Y.-listed shared were up by more than 217 per cent at one point this morning, but headed into the open had pared those gains to roughly 120 per cent. That gain puts the company well on its way to its best single-day ever on the market.