Toronto’s main stock index jumped 1.7% on Friday, led by strength in gold & oil prices, but the gains were held back by weakness in the rest of the stock market.

Gold rose to nearly $900 an ounce for the first time since October 10th which helped the materials sector gain 6.04%. The jump boosted Barrick Gold 9.2%, making it the country’s largest publicly traded company (this position seems to be a revolving chair).

There was also some good strength in the energy sector and some of the other material stocks while financials were held back. Energy issues were lifted as the price of oil rose more than 6%.

Wall Street ended a difficult week with the broad S&P 500 closing higher as investors bought “beaten up” financial shares on hopes of further aid from Capitol Hill which offset a disappointing outlook from General Electric. GE’s stock dropped almost 11% after the economic “bellwether” reported earnings that met Wall Street’s expectations, but warned of an “extremely difficult” 2009.

News that President Barack Obama and his economic advisers would meet on the weekend fueled hopes that the new administration will put together another rescue package for the ailing financial sector.

The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 0.56%, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index jumped 0.54%, and the Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 0.81%.

On the weekend pharmaceutical giant Pfizer confirmed that it is buying rival drugmaker Wyeth in a US$68 billion cash and stock deal that could reshape the drug development industry. Barclays also rallied this morning by 62% after saying “record revenue” will cover write downs (the stock was down 48% last week). ING Groep climbed 22% on plans to slash costs by 1 billion Euros ($1.3 billion U.S.) in 2009.

The Conservative government is rolling out more elements of its economic stimulus plan today in anticipation of tomorrow’s’ budget (which is the worst kept secret in all time).

Regards,

Wilfred Vos Bcs, FMA, CIM, CFP, FCSI, DMS, CBV, MBA, CFA

SVP & Partner