Canada’s main stock index edged up on Wednesday to a record closing high as investors cheered quarterly earnings from some of the nation’s biggest banks and assessed prospects of consolidation in the insurance sector.
The S&P/TSX composite index ended up 14.45 points, or 0.1%, at 26,283.45, eclipsing Tuesday’s record closing high.
Wall Street shares ended lower as investors digested minutes from the last Federal Reserve meeting and awaited results from AI bellwether Nvidia.
Bank of Montreal and National Bank of Canada beat analysts’ estimates for quarterly earnings. Their share prices rose 1.5% and 3.8%, respectively.
“Bank earnings were quite impressive given the risks that are facing the Canadian economy right now,” commented Colin Cieszynski, chief market strategist at SIA Wealth Management.
Also in financials, Canadian property and casualty insurer Definity Financial rose 11.3% after it purchased the Canadian operations of U.S. insurance giant Travelers. It spurred speculation there could be more consolidation in the insurance industry.
The financials sector overall added 0.2% and the materials group, which includes metal mining shares, was up 0.6%.
Technology lost 0.3%, while energy ended 0.7% lower despite higher oil prices. U.S. crude oil futures settled up 1.6% as OPEC+ agreed to leave their output policy unchanged and the U.S. barred Chevron from exporting Venezuelan crude.
According to the minutes of the Fed’s May 6-7 session, U.S. central bank officials acknowledged they could face “difficult tradeoffs” in coming months in the form of rising inflation alongside rising unemployment.
“The Fed minutes really didn’t reveal anything new,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York. “They basically indicate the Fed is in a wait-and-see mode and staying the line, trying to get more clarifications on trade.”
U.S. President Donald Trump backed down over the weekend from his threat of 50% tariffs on imports from the European Union, driving stocks up sharply on Tuesday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 244.95 points, or 0.58%, to 42,098.70, the S&P 500 lost 32.99 points, or 0.56%, to 5,888.55 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 98.23 points, or 0.51%, to 19,100.94.
The S&P 500 is still down from its record closing high, reached on February 19. It fell as much as 18.9% below that level in the wake of Trump’s erratic tariff announcements that have whipsawed markets for much of his second term.
A poll of strategists and analysts conducted by Reuters showed that many market participants expected the benchmark index to finish the year near current levels.
Shares of Cadence Design Systems and Synopsys fell in late trading after the Financial Times reported that the Trump administration has ordered U.S. firms that offer software used to design semiconductors to stop selling their services to Chinese groups. The FT report cited people familiar with the move.
Shares of sportswear retailer Dick’s Sporting Goods gained 1.7% after its first-quarter results beat estimates.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 2.79-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 103 new highs and 34 new lows on the NYSE. On the Nasdaq, 1,448 stocks rose and 2,960 fell as declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 2.04-to-1 ratio.
Reuters, Globe staff