TORONTO, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- Canadian stocks slipped amid weaker U.S. retail and labor data. The S&P/TSX Composite Index fell 49.18 points, or 0.42 percent to 11,804.38 on Thursday.

    Crude oil for February delivery slid 0.33 percent to 79.39 U.S. dollars a barrel on Thursday.

    Suncor Energy Inc. lost 0.42 percent. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. decreased 0.95 percent.

    Gold price added 0.63 percent to 1,144 U.S. dollars an ounce.

    Barrick Gold Corp. was down 1.36 percent. Coldcorp Inc. shed 2.44 percent.

    Financials gained on Thursday. Bank of Montreal rose 0.15 percent. Royal Bank of Canada advanced 0.09 percent.

    According to the U.S. Labor Department, initial claims for jobless benefits in the country increased by 11,000 to 444,000 in the week ended on Jan. 9.

    The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported on Thursday that there's a drop of 266 billion cubic feet in storage of natural gas in the country.

    The U.S. retail sales fell a seasonally adjusted 0.3 percent in December on widespread weakness across different kinds of stores, according to estimations of the U.S. Commerce Department on Thursday.

    "Traders speculated that Canada's economy will continue to outperform that of the U.S.," said Jie Liu, an analyst from RBC Capital Markets.

    Canadian dollar climbed to the strongest level in three months against its U.S. counterpart on Thursday. One U.S. dollar was buying 1.0232 Canadian dollars at 5 p.m. local time (2200 GMT), comparing with 1 U.S. dollar purchasing 1.0304 Canadian dollars on Wednesday.