TORONTO – Losses in the tech sector led Canada’s main stock index and U.S. markets lower Friday, as investors made year-end adjustments to their holdings.
The S&P/TSX composite index ended down 50.42 points at 24,796.40.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 333.59 points at 42,992.21. The S&P 500 index was down 66.75 points at 5,970.84, while the Nasdaq composite fell 298.33 points at 19,722.03.
All of the markets saw larger losses earlier in the day before seeing some recovery in late trading.
On the TSX, the information technology index saw the largest decline at 0.9 per cent, while utilities and industrials also fell.
In the U.S., big tech names were down including Nvidia Corp., just over two per cent lower, and Microsoft Corp., down 1.7 per cent.
The losses were likely more from end-of-year rebalancing than any particular outlook on the sector, said Mike Archibald, vice-president and portfolio manager with AGF Investments Inc.
“Given how well stocks have done this year, there’s certainly going to be some profit taking from larger pensions, institutions and other clients, to probably rebalance,” he said.
“I don’t think there’s anything too nefarious about the move today. It just happens to be, you know, a little bit of profit taking from some of the real big winners.”
The trend explains why the pressure can be especially seen in the magnificent seven tech stocks that have helped lead substantial gains for the year.
Besides the big tech stocks, other more speculative bets like bitcoin and micro-cap stocks have also seen a retreat recently, showing a potential easing of risk appetite, said Archibald.
“In the last couple of weeks we’ve seen a bit of a rollover in some of those assets, so we continue to watch those as they can be a bit of a tell for short-term trading patterns,” he said.
“So we’ll see what that means as we move towards 2025.”
The Canadian dollar traded for 69.37 cents US, compared with 69.51 cents US on Tuesday.
The February crude oil contract was up 98 cents at US$70.60 per barrel and the February natural gas contract was up six cents at US$3.38 per mmBTU.
The February gold contract was down US$22 at US$2,631.90 an ounce and the March copper contract was down less than a penny at US$4.12 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 27, 2024.
Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD)
