Energy stocks gave the S&P/TSX Composite Index a lift on Thursday as the price of oil closed back above the US$100-per-barrel mark.

The TSX closed 333.51 points or almost two per cent higher at 19,063.17.

Crescent Point Energy Corp. was one of the best performers, ending the day up 13 per cent at $9.43 per share, after it announced it’s hiking its quarterly dividend and is on track to achieve its debt reduction targets earlier than expected.

The loonie gained as the greenback weakened, ending at 77.06 cents U.S.

Markets in New York closed higher as two U.S. Federal Reserve governors reiterated their commitment to higher rates to tame inflation and downplayed investor concerns about a recession. The Dow closed 346.87 points higher, the S&P 500 gained 57.54 points and the Nasdaq ended 259.50 points higher.

As North American stocks have whipsawed over recession worries and inflation, David Bailin, chief investment officer at Citi Global Wealth Investments, said there are ways investors can best position their portfolios.

“You want to have a defensive portfolio that you can still do well with, and then rotate into new things in 2023,” Bailin said in an interview Thursday.

He said there are two main themes investors should be currently aware of -- one being the fixed-income market and the other being dividend-driven stocks.

Coming out of the current environment, Bailin said there are opportunities for growth.

“Once we know that interest rates have peaked, once we know whether or not we are in a recessionary or slow growth scenario -- that knowledge is going to cause the value of tech stocks to go back up. With rate problems abating and with growth being necessary for portfolios, we could see a situation where those growth stocks do very well, whether it's in the fourth quarter or the first quarter of this coming year,” he said. 

Aritzia Inc. will be a stock to watch on Friday after beating first-quarter revenue and profit estimates after the close of trading. The apparel retailer reported net revenue rose 65 per cent compared to the same quarter last year, thanks in part to an 81-per-cent jump in U.S. sales.

Investors will also be watching the latest jobs data from both Canada and the United States to gauge how the labour market is faring amid mixed economic signals.

Canadian employers are expected to have added 22,500 jobs in June, according to Bloomberg estimates. Even though it would mark a slight slowdown from the 39,800 jobs added in the prior month, it would still demonstrate that Canada’s jobs engine is continuing to churn. The unemployment is expected to come in at 5.1 per cent, matching May’s reading – the lowest level since the mid 1970s.

In the United States, economists are expecting that country’s unemployment rate to be 3.6 per cent in June -- unchanged from May.

RBC RAISES RECESSION RED FLAG

Meanwhile, Royal Bank of Canada is predicting the country will likely enter a recession next year as “inflation, labour shortages and rising interest rates” drag on economic growth.

“This recession will be moderate and short-lived by historical standards—and can be reversed once inflation settles enough for central banks to lower rates,” Economists Nathan Janzen and Claire Fan wrote in a note to clients on Thursday.

Kim Inglis, portfolio manager at Raymond James, said while she expects inflation to moderate by the end of the year, she’s factoring a “mild recession” into her investment strategy.

Inglis said the best way to prepare a portfolio is to start buying up exchange-traded funds that track markets such as the BMO Low Volatility Canadian Equity ETF.

“If you think about it, individual sectors and individual stocks, there's a chance that particularly with individual stocks that sometimes they may not come back or in the case of different sectors, they may it may take quite a while to come back,” she said in an interview Thursday.

“Whereas the market -- the market will come back. It's not a question of if, it's a question of when. So for investors, I would be looking at dollar cost averaging into some broad market indices.”