Canada’s main stock index rose to another record high on Thursday as gold prices edged up and banks reported stronger-than-expected earnings. Wall Street, however, had a weaker session after artificial intelligence vanguard Nvidia failed to impress investors, weighing down technology shares.
The S&P/TSX composite index ended up 374.63 points, or 1.1%, at 34,501.96, eclipsing the record closing high it posted on Wednesday.
Canada’s six biggest banks exceeded profit forecasts this week in results boosted by wealth management and fee-based income, underlining the resilience of the country’s economy to the impact of U.S. tariffs and broader policy uncertainty.
The banks included Royal Bank of Canada, TD Bank and CIBC, which reported on Thursday. Shares of RBC lost 2.1%, while TD and CIBC gained 1.6% and 2.9% respectively.
Heavily weighted financials added 0.4% and the materials sector, which includes metal mining shares, was up 2.1%. The sector has gained roughly 31% since the start of the year after nearly doubling in 2025. The price of gold was up 0.5% on Thursday as investors weighed the outcome of U.S.-Iran nuclear talks in Geneva.
Shares of energy infrastructure company Enerflex Ltd jumped 17.7% after the company reported quarterly results. Northland Power rose 8.3% after releasing upbeat guidance for this year.
The TSX energy sector added 0.8% and industrials were up 2%.
Technology rose 2.1%, with shares of e-commerce company Shopify Inc adding 4.6%.
In the U.S. market, a pivot back to cyclical sectors helped keep the Dow nominally higher, while a 3.2% drop in the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index helped drag the tech-laden Nasdaq down 1.2%.
Technology shares in general, and software and chips in particular, have see-sawed in recent weeks as investors wrestle with uneasiness over the massive costs and potential disruption of nascent AI technology.
While all three major U.S. stock indexes are on track for modest weekly losses, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq are poised to close lower on the month. The Dow remains on track to post an advance in February.
Nvidia’s fourth-quarter results, posted after Wednesday’s closing bell, were better than analysts expected, and the chipmaker provided above-market estimates. But the world’s richest company by market cap wrestled with increasingly difficult year-on-year comparisons as its revenue growth decelerates. Its shares lost 5.5%.
“It feels like an Nvidia hangover that’s specific to the AI space,” said Michael Green, chief strategist at Simplify Asset Management in Philadelphia. “The S&P itself is being dragged down by Nvidia and the Magnificent 7, and the Nasdaq is really getting hammered.”
“It’s as simple as investors being levered long in Nvidia and short the AI disruption,” Green added. “And when that failed to materialize in a large enough scale, they sold out of their position, driving Nvidia down and pushing the stocks they were short back up.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 17.05 points, or 0.03%, to 49,499.20, the S&P 500 lost 37.27 points, or 0.54%, to 6,908.86 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 273.69 points, or 1.18%, to 22,878.38.
Among the 11 major sectors of the S&P 500, tech and communication services suffered the steepest percentage losses, while financials led the gainers, rising 1.3% on the strength of big bank shares, including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo .
The S&P 500 software and services index, battered in recent weeks on worries over AI-related disruption, gained 1.4%, boosted by a 4.0% increase in Salesforce shares, even though the company provided weaker-than-expected revenue guidance.
Among other U.S. stocks, J.M. Smucker surged 8.8% on the packaged food company’s solid quarterly profit and sales estimates.
C3.ai tumbled 18.5% after it provided a weaker-than-expected current quarter sales forecast and announced it would slash 26% of its global workforce.
Celsius Holding jumped 6.9% after the energy drink maker beat quarterly revenue estimates.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.41-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 444 new highs and 71 new lows on the NYSE. On the Nasdaq, 2,439 stocks rose and 2,237 fell as advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.09-to-1 ratio. The S&P 500 posted 37 new 52-week highs and one new low while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 88 new highs and 88 new lows.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 19.55 billion shares, compared with the 20.31 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.
Reuters, Globe staff