CANADA STOCKS-TSX rallies but still posts biggest weekly decline in 2025

By Fergal Smith

March 7 (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index clawed back some of its weekly decline on Friday as higher oil prices boosted energy shares, with the market rallying despite domestic jobs data that undershot expectations and the latest U.S. tariff threat.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index .GSPTSE ended up 174.72 points, or 0.7%, at 24,758.76. For the week, the index was down 2.5%, its biggest weekly decline since December.

U.S. President Donald Trump railed against what he called tremendously high Canadian tariffs on dairy and lumber, and said his administration could impose reciprocal tariffs on Canadian products as early as Friday.

"It's a constant barrage of tariff headlines," said Angelo Kourkafas, a senior investment strategist at Edward Jones.

"We have this looming uncertainty of what's going to be the impact on the labor market for tariffs but likely today's data solidifies an expectation that we are going to see the Bank of Canada cut rates next week."

Canada's unemployment rate held steady at 6.6% in February but new job additions were only marginally up, falling well short of the 20,000 increase that analysts had forecast.

Investors see a 75% chance the Bank of Canada will cut its benchmark interest rate a further 25 basis points on March 12, after lowering the rate in January to 3%. 0#BOCWATCH

U.S. job growth picked up in February, but cracks are emerging in the once-resilient labor market amid rising uncertainty over trade policy and deep federal government spending cuts.

The energy sector rose 2.4% as the price of oil recouped some recent declines. U.S. crude oil futures settled 1% higher at $67.04 a barrel.

Utilities added 1.5% as bond yields fell and heavily weighted financials ended 0.6% higher.

Shares of MDA Space Ltd MDA.TO jumped 17.7% after the space technology company forecast first-quarter revenue above estimates.