TORONTO – Canadian and U.S. markets moved in opposite directions on Friday as investors continued to digest earnings reports and economic data on both sides of the border.
“You’ve got the market being pulled between stronger growth and the potential for a higher rate environment,” said Anish Chopra, managing director with Portfolio Management Corp.
“GDP growth and corporate earnings are supportive, but you’ve also got higher oil prices and higher bond yields which are keeping inflation concerns front and centre for investors.”
The S&P/TSX composite index was down 279.70 points at 35,226.14. The technology and basic materials sectors led the overall index lower.
Chopra said that Canadian earnings for the second quarter have been broadly positive, but specific stocks have seen challenges. Among them was Telus Corp., which lost 11.27 per cent on the day after it cut its dividend by more than half as it reported a loss in its latest quarter.
“The market’s reacted to the dividend cut; but it’s also what the dividend cut signals. There’s going to be pressure on free cash flow (and) concerns about the debt on the balance sheet of Telus,” he said.
Meanwhile, Statistics Canada reported that real GDP rose 0.3 per cent in May, along with expectations for 0.2 per cent growth in June. StatCan’s advance estimates now point to a 3.4 per cent annualized gain in the second quarter.
“The fact that you have strong economic growth, it certainly reduces the urgency for the Bank of Canada to reduce rates, especially when you have oil prices moving up and bond yields moving up,” Chopra said.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 276.97 points at 52,485.03. The S&P 500 index was up 52.09 points at 7,489.72, while the Nasdaq composite was up 251.68 points at 25,373.85.
Amazon led the U.S. market with a leap of 15.3 per cent after reporting much stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Its profit more than tripled from a year earlier, thanks in part to an acceleration of growth in its cloud computing business.
Analysts said that could be a signal Amazon’s huge AI investments are paying off, and Amazon increased its forecast for how much it will spend on investments this year.
Firmly on the losing end of Wall Street was Apple, which dropped 7.4 per cent despite reporting stronger profit for the latest quarter than expected. Its forecast for revenue growth in the current quarter fell short of expectations, which executives pinned on a supply crunch in components getting vacuumed up in the AI boom.
Also pressuring stocks was another rise in oil prices as uncertainty continues about when the war with Iran will allow crude to flow freely again from the Middle East.
The September crude oil contract for North American benchmark West Texas Intermediate was up US$1.08 at US$84.67 per barrel.
The price for a barrel of Brent crude rose 1.2 per cent to settle at US$87.93 after careening between US$72 and US$102 earlier in July.
The Canadian dollar traded for 71.28 cents US compared with 71.36 cents US on Thursday.
The December gold contract was down US$53.60 to US$4,107.00 an ounce.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 31, 2026.
— With files from The Associated Press
Companies in this story: (TSX: GSPTSE, TSX: CADUSD, TSX: T)
