04:11 PM EST, 12/06/2024 (MT Newswires) -- For the second straight week and second straight day, the Toronto Stock Exchange closed at a record high, after rising a modest 11.76 points to 25,691.80 on Friday.

Going in to Friday's session the index was already up 22.5% year to date.

Still, the TSX ended today's session more than 100 points below new all time record intraday highs above the 25,820 level hit early in the day, as commodity prices traded mixed and as Scotiabank's Derek Holt published a note entitled 'The BoC May be About to Do the Wrong Thing'.

According to Holt, Vice-President and Head of Capital Markets Economics at Scotia, the Bank of Canada is likely to cut its key benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points for a second straight month next Wednesday, but he said it will have "very little to do" with today's jobs report.

In summary, Holt said risk management, "bowing to markets", and BoC Governor Macklem's "intrinsic dovishness" are more likely drivers of upsizing "that could backfire". Holt added seasonal adjustment factors "look too fudged" to have faith in the November job numbers. He noted temps are driving higher unemployment, and cutting rates to employ more unemployable temps won't help productivity, and "risks overheating conditions for the bulk of the economy".

Elsewhere, Maria Solovieva at TD Economics said recent rebounds in consumer and real estate activity "argue for the BoC taking incremental steps to reduce restrictive monetary policy and avoid steps that could exacerbate inflationary pressures". Still, Solovieva added. policymakers may focus on the spike in the unemployment rate and the broader weakness in economic activity, opting to cut rates by another 50 basis points. "The wait is almost over -- attention now shifts to next Wednesday's policy decision."

Data released Friday morning showed total Canadian employment rose by 51k jobs in November 2024, double the forecast. While the unemployment rate jumped 0.3 percentage points to 6.8%, this was put down to an influx of people looking for work that were previously on the sidelines.

Among sectors on Friday, just about more made gains, led by Information Technology up near 1.8%. But the heavyweight sectors of Energy and Base Metals were down near 2% and 1.5% respectively.

Of commodities today, West Texas Intermediate crude oil closed lower for a third day as traders eye the impact of OPEC+'s decision to delay and extend the return of voluntary production cuts to market amid expectations supply will soon begin to swell above demand. WTI crude oil for January delivery closed down $1.10 to settle at US$67.20 per barrel, while January Brent crude was last seen down $0.84 to US$71.25.

But gold traded higher mid-afternoon on Friday as treasury yields fell after the United States added more new jobs than expected last month. Gold for February delivery was last seen up $10.40 to US$2,658.80 per ounce.