Business

Photo: Contributed

The Toronto stock market opened lower as gold and oil prices lost ground and despite some data painting a relatively rosy picture of the North American economy.

The S&P/TSX composite index lost 16.46 points to 12,387.17, while the TSX Venture Exchange was down 2.53 points to 1,173.99.

The Canadian dollar was down 0.05 of a cent to 101.15 cents US after Statistics Canada released some positive data on retail sales and payrolls.

Statistics Canada said average weekly earnings of non-farm payroll employees rose to $909 in October, up 0.9 per cent from September.

On a year-over-year basis, earnings were up 2.8 per cent. That reflected a number of factors, including wage growth and changes in the composition of employment by industry as well as the average number of hours worked.

Statistics Canada also reported retail sales edged up 0.7 per cent to $39.4 billion in October, the fourth straight monthly increase. In volume terms, retail sales increased 0.3 per cent, with eight of 11 subsectors reporting gains.