Canadian stocks gained ground on the first Friday of the month, as investors digested new employment figures for January passed down by Statistics Canada.

The S&P/TSX Composite dropped 268.35 points, or 1.3%, Thursday to 21,094.01.

The Canadian dollar dipped 0.27 cents to 78.59 cents U.S.

March futures advanced 0.2% Friday.

Short-seller Hindenburg Research alleged on Thursday that Standard Lithium Inc’s plan to produce lithium for electric-vehicle batteries in Arkansas is based on technology that does not work. That sent Standard’s shares down 27% Thursday and erased $305.7 million from the company’s market value.

Bank of Montreal will begin bringing employees in its investment and corporate banking unit back to offices on Monday.

National Bank of Canada cut the rating on CES Energy Solutions to sector perform from outperform.

Canaccord Genuity raises the rating on Sienna Senior Living to buy from hold.

JP Morgan cut the rating on Suncor Energy to neutral from overweight.

On the economic picture, the nation’s number crunchers reported employment fell by 200,000 (-1.0%) in January and the unemployment rate rose 0.5 percentage points to 6.5%.

ON BAYSTREET

The TSX Venture Exchange dumped 25.86 points, or 3%, Friday to 839.19.

ON WALLSTREET

Stock futures were mixed in early morning trading Friday as investors digested a slew of corporate earnings reports and as the market awaited an important snapshot of the jobs picture.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrials dipped 96 points, or 0.3%, to 34,875.

Futures for the S&P 500 gained 8.25 points, or 0.2%, to 4,477.25

Futures for the NASDAQ hiked 125.5 points, or 2.1%, to 14,793.

Several technology stocks posted huge after-hours gains following strong quarterly results. Amazon jumped 12.4%, Pinterest surged more than 13% and Snap rocketed up around 46% the day after reporting earnings.

In earnings news, Ford Motor missed estimates by a wide margin, with profit reported Thursday of 26 cents a share well below the consensus of 45 cents. Shares tumbled 5% in pre-market trading.

Friday’s moves come the day after a tech rout spurred by a disappointing earnings report from Facebook parent Meta. The company’s weak results sent the mega-cap tech stock lower Thursday and weighed on equity markets.

Investors were awaiting the January non-farm payrolls report, which is expected to show a gain of 150,000, according to a Dow Jones estimate. However, some on Wall Street are bracing for a disappointing report, with one forecast calling for a loss of 400,000.

Overseas, in Japan, the Nikkei 225 regained 0.7 % Friday, while in Hong Kong, markets resumed trading in a big way after the long weekend, with the Hang Seng leaping 3.2%.

Oil prices leaped $1.74 to $92.01 U.S. a barrel.

Gold prices spiked $10.50 to $1,814.60 U.S. an ounce.