TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index finished lower, weighed down by losses in technology, while U.S. stock markets also moved lower after U.S. President Donald Trump escalated tariff threats against Canada.
The S&P/TSX composite index was down 59.05 points at 27,023.25.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 279.13 points at 44,371.51. The S&P 500 index was down 20.71 points at 6,259.75, while the Nasdaq composite was down 45.14 points at 20,585.53. The S&P 500 closed 0.3 per cent lower a day after setting a record high.
Compared with the sharp declines associated with some of Trump’s previous moves on the trade file, the drops were less significant.
“Obviously a pretty muted reaction to the threat of these 35 per cent tariffs, especially when you consider the dramatic reaction to Liberation Day tariffs, and these are substantively similar,” said Brian Madden, chief investment officer at First Avenue Investment Counsel, in an interview.
“The market is catching on to the art of the deal and the art of the bluff. Because the markets are down, but it’s almost undiscernible. You’re just a tick away from the all-time highs on the TSX and on the S&P 500 and on Nasdaq, and these volumes of trading are pretty light.”
Trump said in a letter Thursday that he will raise taxes on many imported goods from Canada to 35 per cent, deepening the rift between the longtime North American allies. The letter to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney presented an aggressive increase to the top 25 per cent tariff rates that Trump first imposed in March.
White House officials later clarified that it would only apply to non-CUSMA compliant goods.
The move is the latest bid by the White House to use threats of higher tariffs on goods imported into the U.S. in hopes of securing new trade agreements with countries around the globe, even historically close trading partners like Canada.
Madden said that the TSX tech sector saw broad-based losses, but noted shares of Celestica Inc. were trading higher, finishing the day up 1.56 per cent. He added that the health care sector was also down, but represents a smaller part of the overall index.
“Beyond that, you’ve got financials and industrials, so those are cyclical industries. So in a risk-off kind of a tape, you’d expect those to be down,” Madden said.
On the overall TSX performance, he said there is more to consider than the headline number.
“When you look under the hood, although the index, the S&P/TSX index is down, there’s more stocks within it that are up today than down. So it’s sort of a tale of two markets. The commodity complex is strong, particularly oil and gold, and some of the other cyclical elements in the market are leading on the downside,” Madden said.
The August crude oil contract was up US$1.88 at US$68.45 per barrel and the August gold contract was up US$38.30 at US$3,364 an ounce.
The Bank of Canada is increasingly expected to keep its benchmark interest rate on hold later this month after the labour market delivered a surprise hiring surge in June.
Statistics Canada said Friday that the unemployment rate dropped a tenth of a percentage point to 6.9 per cent in June as the economy added some 83,000 jobs.
“I think the Bank of Canada probably is not feeling gun to the head compelled to cut rates to be stimulative. Neutral probably feels about right to them at this point,” Madden said.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.08 cents US, unchanged from Thursday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 11, 2025.
— With files from The Associated Press.
Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD, TSX: CLS)
