By Malcolm Morrison, The Canadian Press

TORONTO - Gold stocks helped keep the Toronto stock market ahead Friday afternoon despite employment reports for October that came in much worse than expected.

The S&P/TSX composite index gained 41.5 points to 11,222.2.

The Canadian dollar was down three-quarters of a cent to 93.08 cents US after Statistics Canada said more than 43,000 jobs were lost in Canada last month, a huge miss from economists' consensus, which had forecast the addition of 10,000 jobs. As a result, the unemployment rate jumped two-tenths of a point to 8.6 per cent, against expectations that it would stay unchanged.

And in the U.S., the Labour Department reported that 190,000 jobs were lost last month, against estimates of about 175,000, while the jobless rate came in at 10.2 per cent, up sharply from 9.8 per cent.

"The headline number was a miss but it's important to look through the numbers," said Jeff Bradacs, senior investment analyst at MFC Global Investment Management.

"What we saw in the previous two months was positive revisions - September 260,000 job losses to 219,000, August from minus 210,000 to minus 154,000 so through the numbers we saw some positive revisions despite the headlines."

Bradacs added that recent readings on the U.S. manufacturing and service sectors have shown expansion and corporate earnings were "fairly strong" for the most recent quarter, with about 80 per cent of companies beating expectations.

The TSX gold sector ran up three per cent as the precious metal continued to move further into record territory. The December bullion contract on the Nymex climbed $5.80 to a record high close of US$1,095.10 an ounce after going as high as US$1,101.90. Goldcorp Inc. (TSX:G) gained $1.21 to C$44.39 and Barrick Gold (TSX:ABX) ran up $1.23 to $44.71.

Auto parts giant Magna International (TSX:MG.A) also lifted the TSX, up $6.76 or 14.35 per cent to $53.83. The surge followed a 10 per cent rise on Wednesday after General Motors Co. said it will keep its European Opel unit and restructure it instead of selling a 55 per cent stake to Magna and its partner, Russian lender Sberbank.

The stock was lifted again Friday, after Magna reported a third-quarter profit of $51 million and investors took in a report that it was in talks with GM and Russian giant OAO GAZ about building an auto assembly plant in Russia.

Rail stocks helped take the industrial sector up almost one per cent. Canadian National Railways (TSX:CNR) advanced 56 cents to $55.55.

The tech sector rose 1.18 per cent with Research In Motion Ltd. (TSX:RIM) up 92 cents to $62.57.

The TSX energy sector was flat as oil prices retreated on the latest indication of a weak U.S. economy. The December crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell $2.19 to US$77.43 a barrel. EnCana Corp. (TSX:ECA) stepped back 84 cents to $60.93.

The TSX Venture Exchange moved up 8.26 points to 1,331.81.

New York markets were weak as the Dow Jones industrials was 2.4 points lower to 10,003.5, holding on most of Thursday's 204-point surge.

The Nasdaq composite index added 3.46 points to 2,108.78 and the S&P 500 index slipped 0.05 of a point to 1,066.6.

The market has been expecting U.S. unemployment to top 10 per cent before peaking. But the pace of job losses has accelerated and is likely to go higher.

The report bodes poorly for American consumer spending, a major component of economic activity. Consumers will keep a tight lid on their spending if they are worried about losing their jobs. And robust consumer spending is necessary to sustain the economic recovery.

Toronto investors took in earnings reports from a variety of major Canadian corporations.

Telus Corp. (TSX:T) reported that net income fell to $280 million or 88 cents per share in the third quarter, down from $286 million or 89 cents per share a year earlier. Telus shares moved 46 cents lower to $33.52 as it also said it now expects 2009 revenue to be between $9.6 billion and $9.7 billion, which is lower than a range of between $9.7 billion to $9.9 billion issued in May.

Suncor Energy Inc. (TSX:SU) reported third-quarter net earnings of $929 million, or 74 cents per common share, in its first quarterly earnings report since merging with Petro-Canada. That compares to net earnings of $815 million, or 87 cents per common share, in the year-ago period. Suncor's operating earnings plunged in the quarter to $288 million, compared with $810 million a year ago but its shares were off two cents at $35.35.

Air Canada (TSX:AC.B) reported a quarterly profit of $277 million or $2.44 a share in the third quarter, thanks to lower fuel prices and foreign exchange gains. That was an improvement from last year's net loss of $132 million or $1.32 per share. Air Canada's operating revenues totalled $2.7 billion for the quarter, down from $3.1 billion last year. Its shares edged up three cents to $1.17.

Brookfield Asset Management Inc. (TSX:BAM.A) said net income fell to US$112 million or 17 cents per diluted share in the third quarter, down from US$171 million or 27 cents per share a year earlier. Revenue declined to just under $3 billion from $3.2 billion in the third quarter of 2008. Revenue was in line with analyst estimates but EPS beat expectations by three cents per share. Brookfield shares gave back 58 cents to $22.62.