Stocks fell on Thursday as investors locked in some recent gains ahead of U.S. and Canadian jobs data, with energy shares among the biggest decliners.
The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index ended down 125.20 points, or 0.4%, at 33,856.62, after notching on Wednesday its highest closing level in more than two weeks. The S&P 500 declined 0.38% to end the session at 7,337.11 points.
“Everybody’s got one eye on the war, one eye on corporate earnings and I guess if you had a third eye it would be on the jobs data released [Friday],” said Allan Small, senior investment advisor of the Allan Small Financial Group with iA Private Wealth. “A lot of investors, perhaps, are just taking a little bit of profit ahead of the jobs number.”
Both the U.S. and Canada are due to release monthly employment data on Friday. Economists have forecast Canada’s economy adding 15,000 jobs in April and the unemployment rate remaining at 6.7%.
The United States and Iran are edging toward a temporary agreement to halt their war, sources and officials said, with Tehran reviewing a proposal that would stop the fighting but leave the most contentious issues unresolved.
The TSX energy sector fell 1.4% as the price of oil settled 0.3% lower at US$94.81 a barrel in volatile trading.
Canadian Natural Resources’ shares ended 2.1% lower after reporting earnings, while shares of Nutrien were down 7.5% even as the company reported a rise in first-quarter profit.
The materials group, which includes fertilizer companies and metal mining shares, fell 0.8%. Industrials lost 0.9%.
Among the bright spots in Toronto was technology. It rose 1.8%, with shares of e-commerce company Shopify Inc clawing back some of this week’s steep declines to end 5.8% higher.
On Wall Street, Arm Holdings tumbled 10% as worries about the company’s ability to secure sufficient supplies for its new AI chip overshadowed a strong earnings forecast.
Intel and Advanced Micro Devices both declined about 3%, giving back some of their gains from earlier this week.
The PHLX chip index dropped 2.7%, trimming its gain so far this quarter to 47%.
Nvidia and Microsoft both climbed almost 2%, underscoring investor confidence in Wall Street’s heavyweight AI companies.
The Nasdaq declined 0.13% to 25,806.20 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.63% to 49,596.97 points.
Nine of the 11 S&P 500 sector indexes declined, led lower by materials, down 1.83%, followed by a 1.78% loss in energy.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was heavy, with 18.3 billion shares traded, compared to an average of 17.5 billion shares over the previous 20 sessions.
A relentless rally in technology and AI shares has helped push U.S. stocks to record highs in recent days as investors cheer signs of strong demand for artificial intelligence and a robust earnings season. S&P 500 companies are on track for their strongest profit growth in more than four years.
Upbeat economic readings in recent weeks have also helped allay concerns about the economy.
With Thursday’s decline, the S&P 500 remains up 7% in 2026.
Data Thursday showed the number of Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits rose less than expected last week. After a strong private payrolls report on Wednesday, investors are awaiting more comprehensive nonfarm payrolls data on Friday, with jobs seen increasing by 62,000 in April after rebounding 178,000 in March, according to a Reuters poll of economists.
Traders continued to bet the U.S. Federal Reserve would hold interest rates steady through the end of the year due to a resilient labor market and elevated energy prices.
Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack Thursday said she expects the central bank to hold interest rates steady well into the future as it navigates a climate of considerable uncertainty.
Datadog soared 31% after the cloud-monitoring company raised its full-year earnings forecast. Cybersecurity companies CrowdStrike jumped 8% and Palo Alto Networks added 7%.
Whirlpool slumped 12% after the home-appliance maker missed first-quarter sales estimates and suspended its dividend.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones within the S&P 500 by a 1.8-to-one ratio. The S&P 500 posted 18 new highs and 11 new lows; the Nasdaq recorded 132 new highs and 89 new lows.
Reuters, Globe staff