TORONTO – Stock markets in Canada and the U.S. saw gains on Friday as the Dow Jones industrial average topped 50,000 for the first time to end the week.
“Today feels like a little bit of a rebound from what was a volatile week,” said Adam Ludwick, the director of asset allocation at NEI Investments.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 476.38 points at 32,470.98.
Many of the gains in the Canadian stock market came from the basic materials sector. He said that the price of precious metals has seen a lot of movement recently, but has still been strong so far this year.
“That’s given a boost to the Canadian mining stocks, so we’re seeing a positive tilt today,” said Ludwick.
Prices in the metals market also calmed a bit following their own wild swings. Gold rose 1.8 per cent, while silver added 0.2 per cent. The April gold contract was up US$90.30 at US$4,979.80 an ounce.
Their prices suddenly ran out of momentum last week following jaw-dropping rallies, which were driven by investors clamouring for something safe to own amid worries about political turmoil, a U.S. stock market that critics called expensive and huge debt loads for governments worldwide. By January, prices for gold and silver were surging so quickly that critics called it unsustainable.
Canadian investors also digested labour force figures for the month of January.
Statistics Canada said Friday that fewer people were looking for work last month, driving the unemployment rate lower despite job losses. The agency said the economy shed 25,000 jobs in January, compared to economists’ expectations for a slight gain.
“The Canadian market overall, I think it has some mixed signalling. You have headline employment that looks stable, but underneath, you’re seeing some stress on the manufacturing side (and) you’re seeing slowing wages,” Ludwick said.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 1,206.95 points at 50,115.67. The S&P 500 index was up 133.90 points at 6,932.30, while the Nasdaq composite was up 490.63 points at 23,031.21.
Ludwick said he thinks the Dow Jones passing the 50,000 mark will have a psychological impact on some investors, but it is not something he places a lot of emphasis on.
The U.S. stock market roared back on Friday, as technology stocks recovered much of their losses from earlier in the week.
Chip companies helped drive the widespread rally, and Nvidia jumped 7.8 per cent to trim its loss for the week, which came into the day at just over 10 per cent. Broadcom climbed 7.1 per cent and erased its drop for the week.
They were the two strongest forces lifting the S&P 500, and benefited from hopes for continued spending by customers diving into artificial-intelligence technology. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, for example, said late Thursday it expects to spend about US$200 billion on investments this year to take advantage of “seminal opportunities like AI, chips, robotics, and low earth orbit satellites.”
Such immense spending, similar to what Alphabet announced a day earlier, is creating concerns of its own, though. The question is whether all those dollars will create big enough profits to make the investments worth it. With doubt remaining about that, Amazon’s stock dropped 5.6 per cent.
Ludwick said that earnings this week from the large U.S. tech companies weren’t just about the reports themselves, but also the scale of capital spending.
“You have the Magnificent Seven stocks that are signalling that the AI race is much more capital-intensive than people thought, or at least we’re in that phase,” he said.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.27 cents US compared with 73.12 cents US on Thursday.
The March crude oil contract was up 29 cents US at US$63.55 per barrel.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 6, 2026.
— With files from The Associated Press.
Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD)
