Canada’s main stock index rose on Friday to another record high as gains for gold and silver prices boosted metal mining shares and investors turned attention to bank earnings season.
The S&P/TSX composite index ended up 186.07 points, or 0.6 per cent, at 31,382.78 points, surpassing Thursday’s record closing high. For the month, the index added 3.7 per cent. That was its seventh straight monthly gain, the longest such streak since 2021.
U.S. stocks also climbed in thin trading volume during a shortened session after Thanksgiving, and the price of gold rose 1.8 per cent as expectations strengthened for Federal Reserve interest rate cuts.
“The environment for the precious metal is quite supportive, especially with potential (Fed) rate cuts heading into 2026,” said Ian Chong, a portfolio manager at First Avenue Investment Counsel Inc. “As rates move lower, there’s a very strong inverse correlation to gold.”
Silver was up 6.1 per cent, setting a record high. The materials group, which includes metal mining shares, advanced 2.1 per cent, with shares of Endeavour Silver Corp and Aya Gold & Silver Inc jumping 12.7 per cent and 12 per cent respectively.
Energy also outperformed, rising 1.1 per cent. The price of oil settled 0.2 per cent lower at $58.55 a barrel.
Crude oil exports and government spending boosted Canadian economic activity in the third quarter even as business investments and household consumption disappointed. Annualized gross domestic product grew 2.6 per cent, which surpassed expectations for an increase of 0.5 per cent.
Canada’s major banks begin reporting quarterly earnings next week. That could set the tone for the market considering financial stocks hold a 32 per cent weighting on the TSX.
“We’re expecting some good numbers from the banks as reserves remain low, while provisions for credit losses and net interest margins should also be fairly healthy,” Chong said.
U.S. stocks climbed on Friday in thin trading volume during a shortened session after Thanksgiving, driven by gains in retail and a recovery in tech stocks.
Expectations for a Federal Reserve rate cut in December strengthened throughout the week, helping underpin sentiment across equity markets.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.61 per cent, to 47,716.42 points, the S&P 500 gained 0.54 per cent, to 6,849.09 points and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.65 per cent, to 23,365.69.
All of the major S&P 500 sectors were up except healthcare, with pharmaceutical Eli Lilly down 2.6 per cent.
Intel helped lead the S&P 500 with a 10.2 per cent gain after a TF International Securities analyst said the company would begin shipping Apple’s lowest-end M processor as early as 2027.
The three main indexes posted weekly gains. The S&P 500 rose 3.73 per cent, the Nasdaq gained 4.91 per cent, and the Dow climbed 3.18 per cent. The S&P and the Dow swung to marginally positive for the month after Friday’s prices settled.
But the Nasdaq closed down 1.51 per cent this month, reflecting growing concerns about stretched AI and tech valuations, with investors taking profits and reducing exposure.
“This is a light volume post-holiday session, as those tend to be, with not much activity,” said Cole Smead, CEO at Smead Capital Management. “But I think everyone woke up over the past weeks to the fact that the outcome of AI is still very unknown.” Futures trading was temporarily disrupted in the morning following a CME Group outage that had temporarily frozen currencies, commodities and equity contracts around the globe.
CME’s stock futures offerings linked to U.S. stocks are typically heavily traded before U.S. markets open, with investors relying on them to gauge trends and directions.
CME said it was due to a cooling issue at its CyrusOne data centers.
Shares of CME Group were marginally higher.
“We’re kind of lucky today. It was such a low-volume day, but it could have had a much bigger effect,” said Joe Saluzzi, partner, co-founder and head of equity market structure research and co-head of equity trading at Themis Trading.
“It does point to the risk of these failures and the connectedness to the markets that could cause bigger problems.”
This week also kicked off the holiday shopping season, starting with Thanksgiving on Thursday, Black Friday and Cyber Monday - crucial days of sales for big-box retailers.
Reuters