TORONTO -- Rising gold prices helped lift the Toronto stock market higher, while traders resisted making big moves on Wall Street ahead of the latest round of U.S. job figures.
At the Toronto Stock Exchange, the S&P/TSX composite index climbed 85.96 points to 14,683.91, as gold stocks registered the biggest gains.
In New York, stock markets were mixed, with the Dow Jones industrial average adding 18.42 points at 18,419.30, the broader S&P 500 composite index dipping a marginal 0.09 of a point to 2,170.86, and the Nasdaq composite jumping 13.99 points to 5,227.21.
The Institute for Supply Management says manufacturing in the U.S. fell last month for the first time since February, as the number of new orders dropped and factories cut jobs. The ISM index dropped to 49.4 in August from 52.6 in July. Any reading below 50 signals contraction.
Traders are waiting for a highly-anticipated report on August jobs coming out on Friday.
Meanwhile, commodities were mixed as the December gold contract climbed $5.70 to US$1,317.10 an ounce, October natural gas shed 10 cents to $2.79 per mmBTU, and the December copper contract was unchanged at US$2.08 a pound.
The October crude contract lost $1.54 at US$43.16 per barrel, with the Canadian dollar gaining 0.18 of a cent at 76.42 cents US.
