TORONTO – Canada’s main stock market reversed course after early gains to fall more than 370 points, while U.S. markets also fell amid a sell-off in large technology stocks.
Carol Schleif, chief market strategist at BMO Private Wealth, said she was surprised by the markets broadly turning negative, given the exuberance seen in the morning hours.
“The whipsaw today is more unusual just because of the breadth … you were up a couple per cent and now you’re down a couple of per cent, and we haven’t seen those moves in a long time, so they feel worse,” she said.
However, Schleif noted that pullbacks are normal, even in years with double-digit gains. She also pointed out that markets came out of September and October in record-high territory, despite typically being seasonally weak months.
The S&P/TSX composite index was down 371.86 points at 29,906.55.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 386.51 points at 45,752.26. The S&P 500 index was down 103.40 points at 6,538.76, while the Nasdaq composite was down 486.18 points at 22,078.05.
She said it is possible the large swings in stock markets were driven by algorithmic trading and those looking to rebalance their portfolios at the end of the year.
Declines in the TSX were likely the result of getting “pulled into the vortex” of the broader sell-off in the U.S. market, she said.
Schleif said anything “tangential” to the AI build-out was feeling the effects, which included metals and mining companies whose materials would be used in data centres themselves, but also in chips.
“It’s a second and third knock-on effect, I think, of people wanting to pull back some of the bets and exposure in the artificial intelligence play.”
Meanwhile, jarring swings kept rocking Wall Street, and U.S. stocks erased a big morning gain to drop on Thursday as the market remains skittish following weeks of doubts and erratic moves.
The sharpest losses again hit what used to be the market’s biggest winners. Nvidia, cryptocurrencies and other areas that had soared with nearly relentless momentum, as traders feared missing out on more gains, forced the market lower.
Nvidia initially appeared to tamp down the worries about a bubble for AI stocks after reporting a big profit for the summer on Wednesday, along with a forecast for coming revenue that easily cleared analysts’ expectations.
Nvidia jumped to an early gain of five per cent but then dropped to a loss of three per cent. Because it’s the biggest company in the U.S. market by value, Nvidia’s stock has more pull on the S&P 500 than any other company’s.
Despite Nvidia’s big numbers, worries about a potential AI bubble aren’t gone. The concern among investors is that all the dollars pouring into AI chips and data centres may not ultimately produce the big profits and productivity for the economy that proponents have been promising.
The Canadian dollar traded for 71.02 cents US compared with 71.23 cents US on Wednesday.
The January crude oil contract was down 25 cents US at US$59.00 per barrel.
The December gold contract was down US$22.80 at US$4,060.00 an ounce.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 20, 2025.
— With files from The Associated Press.
Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD)
