TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index reversed earlier losses to finish in positive territory and continue its streak of record highs, while U.S. markets also gained despite a U.S. government shutdown preventing the release of economic data.
“The market’s hitting all-time new highs … we were looking for some jobless claims data today from the U.S. Department of Labor, but that didn’t happen because of the shutdown south of the border,” said Jillian Bryan, senior investment adviser and portfolio manager at TD Wealth.
U.S. stocks edged up to more records on Thursday as technology stocks kept rising and as Wall Street continued to shrug off the shutdown of the U.S. government.
Thursdays on Wall Street typically have investors reacting to the latest weekly tally of U.S. workers applying for unemployment benefits. But D.C.’s shutdown meant this week’s report on jobless claims was delayed. An even more consequential report, Friday’s monthly tally of jobs created and destroyed across the economy, will likely also not arrive on schedule.
That increases uncertainty when much on Wall Street is riding on investors’ expectation that the job market is slowing by enough to convince the U.S. Federal Reserve to keep cutting interest rates, but not by so much that it leads to a recession.
“With that data vacuum, I think investors are looking at alternative sources for that information,” she said, pointing to survey data from ADP Research.
The data, released Wednesday, showed that U.S. employers outside the government actually cut 32,000 more jobs than they added.
“They obviously don’t carry the same weight as labour employment indicators, but they fill the gap left by the weekly jobs claims report,” Bryan said.
Historically, government shutdowns have had a “limited impact” on the performance of stock markets, she said.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 78.62 points at 46,519.72. The S&P 500 index was up 4.15 points at 6,715.35, while the Nasdaq composite was up 88.89 points at 22,844.05. All three indexes extended a record streak.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 52.92 points at 30,160.59.
As the consumer cyclicals sector added the most points to Canada’s main index on Thursday, Bryan highlighted that one of the largest companies within the sector has performed well this year.
“You’ve got stocks like Dollarama that has really shrugged off any problems with tariffs. It’s up 30 per cent this year. That’s clearly been a winner,” she said.
Dollarama Inc. shares were flat on the day, posting a gain of 0.64 per cent.
The Canadian dollar traded for 71.62 cents US compared with 71.74 cents US on Wednesday.
The November crude oil contract was down US$1.30 at US$60.48 per barrel. The December gold contract was down US$29.40 at US$3,868.10 an ounce.
Despite gold prices moving lower on Thursday, Bryan said it has been “fascinating” to watch the price of the key commodity march higher during the year.
“It’s had a huge move and of course, that’s helped the TSX because we have obviously some producers that are in the index,” she said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 2, 2025.
— With files from The Associated Press
Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD, TSX: DOL)
