TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index reached new highs, helped by corporate earnings in the basic materials sector, while U.S. markets were mixed.
Kevin Burkett, a portfolio manager at Victoria-based Burkett Asset Management, said the basic materials sector was helped by shares of Orla Mining Ltd. that rose 13.63 per cent after it reported third-quarter earnings on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the December crude oil contract was down US$2.55 at US$58.49 per barrel.
Burkett said falling oil prices drove some dispersion in the TSX energy sector. But the sector still finished in positive territory, helped by Baytex Energy Corp. shares that gained 13.64 per cent on the day.
The Calgary-based company announced it is turning its focus to Canada, announcing plans to divest its position in the Eagle Ford shale formation in Texas — the biggest part of its business — through a $3.25-billion deal.
Elsewhere in the energy sector, MEG Energy Corp. announced it was granted a final order for the Cenovus transaction from an Alberta court. Burkett said this suggests the transaction will close.
“This seems today like two announcements that both point Canadian energy management teams back to a core focus of trying to produce oil inexpensively in Alberta, B.C., and Saskatchewan, as opposed to complicating things with different geographies and different types of plays,” he said.
“I think that’s positive for investors, and I think that’s arguably positive for Canada as well.”
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 418.33 points at 30,827.58.
Meanwhile, U.S. stocks drifted around their records in a mixed day of trading on Wednesday.
Stocks benefiting from the artificial-intelligence frenzy have been shaky recently, as investors question whether how much more they can add to already spectacular gains.
Their sensational performances have been one of the top reasons the U.S. market has hit records despite a slowing job market and high inflation. Their prices have shot so high, though, that critics say they’re reminiscent of the 2000 dot-com bubble, which ultimately burst and dragged the S&P 500 down by nearly half.
Nvidia came into the day with a 4.6 per cent drop for the month so far, for example, after its stock price more than doubled in four of the last five years. The biggest player in AI chips swung between gains and losses throughout Wednesday. Palantir Technologies, another AI darling, fell 3.6 per cent for one of the day’s larger losses on the S&P 500.
Burkett said the U.S. government shutdown, now nearing its end, had a muted impact on the market.
“It doesn’t tend to affect markets to the degree that some of the political grandstand commentary tends to suggest,” he said.
House lawmakers made a long-awaited return to Washington on Wednesday after nearly eight weeks away to potentially put an end to the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 326.86 points at 48,254.82. The S&P 500 index was up 4.31 points at 6,850.92, while the Nasdaq composite was down 61.84 points at 23,406.46.
The Canadian dollar traded for 71.40 cents US.
The December crude oil contract was down US$2.55 at US$58.49 per barrel.
The December gold contract was up US$97.30 at US$4,213.60 an ounce.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2025.
— With files from The Associated Press.
Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD)
