TORONTO – Stock markets in Canada and the United States rose Wednesday ahead of a tariff announcement from U.S. President Donald Trump, with anxious investors uncertain what would happen after the closing bell.
“Today has been very, very volatile,” said Pierre-Benoît Gauthier, vice-president of investment strategy at IG Wealth Management.
“There’s a tug of war between the bears and the bull, and the bulls have been kind of winning all week.”
The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 273.90 points, or more than one per cent, at 25,307.18.
In New York, markets zigzagged throughout the day, with the S&P 500 going between a loss of 1.1 per cent and a gain of the same magnitude.
The Dow Jones industrial average was up 235.36 points at 42,225.32. The S&P 500 index was up 37.90 points at 5,670.97, while the Nasdaq composite was up 151.16 points at 17,601.05.
Elon Musk’s Tesla saw its stock price fall more than five per cent intraday after a report said it delivered fewer vehicles in the first quarter than a year prior, but the stock recovered and ended the day up 5.3 per cent after media reports that Musk is likely to step back from his government role and focus on his company.
Shortly after 4 p.m. EDT, Trump announced new tariffs on most countries around the world. He left Canada and Mexico untouched beyond tariffs already in place, which include duties on steel and aluminum as well as auto tariffs set to come into place Thursday.
Markets will react to Wednesday’s announcement on Thursday, said Gauthier, though he warned the reaction should be taken “with a grain of salt, especially if it’s a rebound.”
“The real effects of everything that’s going on are not yet known,” he said.
On Friday, investors will turn their attention to jobs data for insight into what to expect from the U.S. Federal Reserve.
“That job report will kind of dictate how the Fed will react to this,” he said. A weaker jobs report means an interest-rate cut could be imminent.
However, the effects of tariffs and trade uncertainty has yet to make its way into economic data, which is delayed, noted Gauthier.
The Canadian dollar traded for 69.83 cents US compared with 69.70 cents US on Tuesday.
The May crude oil contract was up 51 cents US at US$71.71 per barrel and the May natural gas contract was up 11 cents US at US$4.06 per mmBTU.
The June gold contract was up US$20.20 at US$3,166.20 an ounce and the May copper contract was up half a penny US at US$5.04 a pound.
— With files from The Associated Press
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 2, 2025.
Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD)
