Canada’s main stock index rose on Tuesday as the materials sector got a boost from higher metal prices and investors turned attention to the release of domestic corporate earnings.
The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index ended up 47.43 points, or 0.2 per cent, at 27,364.43, stopping just short of Thursday’s record closing high.
“The market keeps climbing this wall of worry,” said Greg Taylor, chief investment officer at PenderFund Capital Management.
“This is a big few weeks coming up for us as we hit these tariff deadlines again and also the earnings season coming on. I think earnings are going to be super-important and just hearing some guidance around the tariffs is going to be a real key.”
Canada will use all the time that is available to strike a trade deal with the United States, Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters. U.S. President Donald Trump has said the U.S. would impose a 35 per cent tariff on Canadian goods from August 1.
The materials sector gained 2.5 per cent as gold and copper prices climbed.
Energy also ended higher, rising 0.7 per cent, even as the price of oil settled 1.5 per cent lower at $66.21 a barrel.
Technology was a drag, falling 1.8 per cent, with e-commerce company Shopify Inc down 4.2 per cent.
In the United States, the S&P 500 eked out a record-high close on Tuesday, following steep losses in General Motors and a gain in Tesla as investors focused on recent and upcoming quarterly reports and watched for signs of progress in U.S. trade discussions.
GM tumbled 8.1 per cent after the automaker reported a $1 billion hit from tariffs to its quarterly results, adding more fuel to investor concerns about U.S. President Donald Trump’s global trade policy. Shares of Ford Motor fell about 1 per cent. Tesla climbed 1.1 per cent a day before its quarterly report, while Alphabet, also reporting on Wednesday, rose 0.65 per cent.
Optimism about heavy spending on artificial intelligence has underpinned a rally in Wall Street’s most valuable companies, with the S&P 500 trading around record highs.
“The market is consolidating recent gains and is in a bit of a holding pattern with some huge catalysts over the next week or two, including the August 1 tariff deadline and a lot of important Magnificent Seven earnings,” said Ross Mayfield, an investment strategy analyst at Baird.
Other Big Tech stocks lost ground, with Meta Platforms and Microsoft both losing about 1 per cent. Shares of RTX dropped 1.6 per cent after the aerospace and defense giant took a hit from Trump’s trade war despite strong demand for its engines and aftermarket services. Lockheed Martin tumbled almost 11 per cent after its quarterly profit plunged by about 80 per cent.
U.S. trade policy remains a major point of uncertainty for investors and companies as Trump’s self-imposed August 1 deadline for many countries to reach agreements with the White House approaches. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he would meet his Chinese counterpart next week to discuss an extension to the August 12 deadline set for tariffs on imports from China. Other trade negotiations appeared stalled, with optimism for a breakthrough deal with India waning and EU officials weighing countermeasures against the United States.
The S&P 500 climbed 0.06 per cent to end the session at 6,309.62 points.
The Nasdaq declined 0.39 per cent to 20,892.69 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.40 per cent to 44,502.44 points.
Nine of the 11 S&P 500 sector indexes rose, led by healthcare, up 1.9 per cent, followed by a 1.78 per cent gain in real estate.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was relatively heavy, with 18.8 billion shares traded, compared with an average of 17.7 billion shares over the previous 20 sessions. Philip Morris slumped 8.43 per cent after reporting second-quarter revenue below expectations, as shipments of its ZYN nicotine pouches disappointed investors.
Analysts on average expected S&P 500 companies to report a 7 per cent increase in earnings for the second quarter, with technology heavyweights driving much of that gain, according to LSEG I/B/E/S.
After last week’s mixed economic data, traders have all but ruled out an interest-rate cut from the U.S. Federal Reserve at next week’s policy meeting. They now see about a 60 per cent chance of a reduction in September, according to the CME’s FedWatch tool.
Advancing issues outnumbered falling ones within the S&P 500 by a 4.3-to-1 ratio.
The S&P 500 posted 21 new highs and 1 new low; the Nasdaq recorded 73 new highs and 41 new lows.
- Reuters