TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index finished in negative territory Monday, weighed down by declines in precious metal prices, while U.S. markets also fell.
Pierre-Benoît Gauthier, vice-president of investment strategy at IG Wealth Management, said the basic materials sector on the S&P/TSX composite index felt the effect of silver prices going “parabolic overnight before suddenly shifting in a dramatic reversal.”
Silver prices slumped 8.7 per cent, but they have still more than doubled overall in 2025.
“The price action of silver is the big story today and it’s what’s been driving the returns for the whole index in Canada, considering that now materials are getting very big in the index. The whole sector in Canada is down almost three per cent on the day on the back of this little silver correction,” Gauthier said.
He added that during this time of year, markets are slow and move on lower volume, making it prone to volatility.
Going into next year, he said he is optimistic about the performance of precious metals.
“The price increase in metals will probably not match what we saw in 2025 because we were very much under priced at the beginning of the year and now the prices have gone up a lot since then, but everything that supports value for precious metals is still there,” Gauthier said.
He added that the U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to lower interest rates, which could benefit precious metals along with geopolitical tensions.
“Nothing has changed much from the beginning of last year, which means that to us it should be another good year,” Gauthier said.
The S&P/TSX composite index was down 103.17 points at 31,896.59.
Big technology stocks with outsized valuations were among the heaviest weights on the U.S. market.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 249.04 points at 48,461.93. The S&P 500 index was down 24.20 points at 6,905.74, while the Nasdaq composite fell 118.75 points at 23,474.35.
Nvidia fell 1.2 per cent and Broadcom fell 0.8 per cent. Investor optimism about the future of artificial intelligence has been driving the sector mostly higher all year and pushing the broader market to a series of records.
Technology stocks have been more unsteady as the year heads to a close, though. They mostly slipped in November and have only notched modest gains through December.
Nvidia and several other companies focusing on AI or benefiting heavily from the developing technology have become some of the most valuable in the world. Investors have seemingly become more skeptical about whether the eventual payoff will make the hefty investments worthwhile.
Investors also digested some mergers and acquisitions activity on Monday when SoftBank Group Corp. announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire DigitalBridge Group, Inc.
“We’re starting to see more and more of these acquisitions and this is good for a bull market. An increase in merger and acquisition activity is a sign of a functioning market,” Gauthier said.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.07 cents US, compared with 73.13 on Dec. 24.
The February crude oil contract was up US$1.34 at US$58.08 per barrel. The February gold contract was down US$209.10 at US$4,343.60 an ounce.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 29, 2025.
— With files from The Associated Press.
Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD)
