The Canadian dollar surged following better-than-expected big job gains data today as stock markets on both sides of the border stumbled amid the latest news on Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election.

The loonie was trading at an average price of 78.56 cents US, up 0.97 of a U.S. cent, after Statistics Canada said the economy added 79,500 jobs in November, blowing past the 10,000 that economists had expected.

U.S. stock indexes recovered somewhat from a steep morning slide after Senate Republicans signalled they have enough votes to push forward on a tax overhaul bill. The stock market fell sharply after former U.S. national security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian ambassador.

Read more: Ex-Trump adviser Michael Flynn agrees to co-operate with Russia investigation, pleads guilty to lying to the FBI

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 40.76 points to 24,231.59. The S&P 500 index inched back 5.36 points to 2,642.22 and the Nasdaq composite index was down 26.38 points to 6,847.59.

North of the border, the Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index gave back 28.51 points to 16,038.97, with a bullish energy sector the lone bright spot.

In commodities, the January crude contract climbed 96 cents to US$58.36 per barrel and the January natural gas contract added four cents to US$3.06 per mmBTU.

The February gold contract advanced US$5.60 cents to US$1,282.30 an ounce and the March copper contract was up three cents to US$3.09 a pound.

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