Canada’s main stock index jumped to a record high on Thursday, with energy and financial shares leading broad-based gains as commodity prices rose and the government proposed measures that could stimulate the economy.
The S&P/TSX composite index ended up 354.22 points, or 1.4%, at 25,390.68, its biggest gain since Aug. 8. It moved past the record closing high it posted last Thursday.
Wall Street also notched gains as investors digested chip company Nvidia’s earnings report.
“There was a lot of bearishness earlier in the year about the prospects for the TSX but this record high ... it’s a very broad-based rally and that bodes to underlying strength,” said Elvis Picardo, a portfolio manager at Luft Financial, iA Private Wealth.
All ten major sectors notched gains on Thursday as Canada’s Liberal government, which is trailing in the polls ahead of next year’s election, unveiled $6.3 billion in proposed new spending measures to help consumers deal with high prices.
“The Canadian economy has been slowing down and I think that can boost consumer spending,” Picardo said. “It would impact the economy in a positive way and consequently the banks.”
Financials, the most heavily weighed sector on the TSX, rose 1%, helped by a gain of 2.6% for Royal Bank of Canada.
Manulife Financial said it will reinsure $5.4 billion of its reserves as it looks to transfer some risk from its portfolio and free up capital for stock buybacks. Its shares rose 1.4%.
The technology sector climbed 2.2%, with shares of electronics firm Celestica Inc jumping 5.1%.
Energy advanced 1.8% as the price of oil settled 2.1% higher at $70.19 a barrel. Industrials added 1.8% and the materials group, which includes fertilizer companies and metal mining shares, was up 1.3%.
U.S. trading was choppy, with the blue-chip Dow and the S&P 500 hitting one-week tops.
Dow Jones Industrial Average gains were aided by cloud company Salesforce’s 3.1% advance after three brokerages lifted their price targets on the stock.
Shares of Wall Street’s biggest company, Nvidia, added 0.5% after teetering following its earnings release on Wednesday. The chip company surpassed expectations for quarterly results, and projected fourth-quarter revenue above estimates.
“(Nvidia’s) earnings report was really, really good. Some of the whisper numbers were higher and they disappointed there, but the fundamentals of AI and Nvidia continue to fire on all cylinders and the outlook for next year is positive,” said Anthony Saglimbene, chief market strategist at Ameriprise Financial.
Some investors were unimpressed that the forecast was its slowest in seven quarters.
The broader Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index climbed 1.6%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 461.88 points, or 1.06%, to 43,870.35, the S&P 500 gained 31.60 points, or 0.53%, to 5,948.71 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 6.28 points, or 0.03%, to 18,972.42.
Alphabet slid 4.7% to touch a four-week low after the Justice Department argued to a judge that Google must sell its Chrome browser and take other measures to end its monopoly on online search.
The stock’s losses weighed on the communication services sector, which was the biggest sectoral decliner, falling 1.73%. Utilities stocks led the S&P higher.
Amazon.com fell 2.2% after a report said it will likely face an EU investigation next year into whether it favors its own brand products on its online marketplace.
On the data front, a weekly report on jobless claims showed they fell unexpectedly last week, suggesting a rebound in job growth in November.
Investors will be closely monitoring commentary from Federal Reserve officials before the mid-December FOMC meeting.
Money-market bets favor a 25-basis-point interest rate cut by the Fed in December, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch.
“We’ve moved on from the election a bit, we got the Nvidia report, so the next thing markets will look for is the Fed meeting, and some policy speak from Fed officials this week have pointed to maybe a pause in the making for December,” Saglimbene said.
Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin said the United States is more vulnerable to inflationary shocks than in the past, according to a media report.
Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee said on Thursday he supports further interest rate cuts and is open to doing them more slowly.
Traders also monitored geopolitical tensions between Ukraine and Russia that sent crude prices higher and aided a 0.8% gain in the energy sector.
Shares of machinery manufacturer Deere gained 8% after reporting an upbeat fourth-quarter profit, while AI company Snowflake jumped 32.7% after raising its annual product revenue forecast.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 3.17-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 380 new highs and 88 new lows on the NYSE.
On the Nasdaq, 2,875 stocks rose and 1,444 fell as advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.99-to-1 ratio. The S&P 500 posted 67 new 52-week highs and four new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 138 new highs and 149 new lows.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 15.32 billion shares, compared with the 14.55-billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.
Reuters, Globe staff