Canada’s main stock index fell and U.S. markets rose Thursday as investors reacted to U.S. court decisions blocking — and then temporarily reinstating — many of President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
The U.S. Court of International Trade ruled on Wednesday that Trump does not have the authority to impose tariffs on nearly every country using the International Economic Emergency Powers Act. The decision blocked both the “Liberation Day” duties and the tariffs on Canada and Mexico purportedly tied to fentanyl, but not separate levies on Canadian steel, aluminum and automobiles.
On Thursday, a ruling from the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit temporarily reinstated the tariffs while it considers an appeal from the White House.
Market reaction to the earlier decision from the lower court had been relatively muted, likely because most stock valuations have already baked in positive tariff news, said Candice Bangsund, vice-president and portfolio manager at Fiera Capital in Montreal.
“I think it just underscores the uncertainty and the question marks around tariff policy and the potential for ongoing volatility,” she said. “So now these so-called positive surprises may not result in the positive outcomes in the stock market.”
The S&P/TSX composite index was down 72.89 points, or 0.3%, at 26,210.56. It closed at a record high Wednesday.
The losses on the resource-heavy Toronto index were largely due to a drop in oil prices. The July contract for West Texas Intermediate crude was down 90 cents US at US$60.94 per barrel.
The financials sector also fell 0.6% and consumer staples was down 0.8%.
Royal Bank of Canada missed analysts’ quarterly profit estimates as it set aside larger than expected sums of money for potential loan defaults in an uncertain economy brought on by U.S. tariffs. Shares of Canada’s largest bank fell 3.5%, while Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce shares posted a smaller decline, ending 0.3% lower. CIBC topped estimates as its earnings from the capital markets unit rose 20%.
Not all TSX sectors lost ground.
Real estate and utilities rose 0.9% and 0.1% respectively as long-term borrowing costs fell. The Canadian 10-year bond yield eased 3.4 basis points to 3.212%.
Shares of powersports product manufacturer BRP Inc. climbed 12.7% on Thursday after the company reported first-quarter results that beat estimates.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average finished 117.03 points higher at 42,215.73. The S&P 500 index was up 23.62 points at 5,912.17, while the Nasdaq composite rose 74.93 points at 19,175.87.
Thursday also saw the first market reaction to tech heavyweight Nvidia’s latest quarterly earnings released after markets closed Wednesday, which beat expectations.
Nvidia earned US$18.8 billion for the period, a 26 per cent increase from the same time last year, while revenue surged 69 per cent from a year ago to US$44.1 billion. If not for a US$4.5 billion charge that Nvidia absorbed to account for the U.S. government’s restrictions on its chip sales to China, Nvidia would have made 96 cents per share, far above the 73 cents per share analysts called for.
Nvidia shares closed up more than three per cent to US$139.19 per share.
North of the border, Statistics Canada is set to release first-quarter gross domestic product numbers on Friday, but Bangsund said that data is “a little bit stale” and won’t show the true state of the economy now.
“The damage has probably already been done, given the threats of tariffs, the uncertainty surrounding that, but it hasn’t yet shown up in the actual observable economic activity data. That might take a few more months,” she said.
“That’s something that I don’t believe is priced into market expectations and that could create some vulnerability from a market perspective, particularly in the context of equity valuations that are trading at pretty lofty valuations.”
The Canadian dollar traded 72.43 for cents US compared with 72.33 cents US on Wednesday.
The August gold contract closed up US$21.50 at US$3,343.90 an ounce and the July copper contract was down one tenth of a cent at US$4.68 a pound.
The Canadian Press, Reuters, Globe staff