TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index rose Friday, helped by strength in industrial stocks, while U.S. markets also posted gains to end the week.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 53.60 points at 25,444.28.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 426.16 points at 44,296.51. The S&P 500 index was up 20.63 points at 5,969.34, while the Nasdaq composite was up 31.23 points at 19,003.65.
Markets ended the week on a calmer note, almost two weeks after the election of Donald Trump in the U.S. set investors on a rally. The S&P 500 ended the day within about 0.5 per cent of the all-time high it set last week.
“It just seems like more of the same, that the market’s still in a pretty positive setting coming out of the election,” said Greg Taylor, chief investment officer at Purpose Investments.
This week also saw the latest earnings from semiconductor giant Nvidia, which beat expectations but weren’t enough to impress markets. Nvidia made a small gain Thursday and was down more than three per cent Friday.
The Dow outperformed its U.S. peers again Friday, rising one per cent, while the S&P 500 was up 0.35 per cent and the Nasdaq gained just 0.16 per cent.
Taylor said markets have been undergoing a rotation not just away from the big tech names and into other sectors, but also within the tech sector, and into areas like software.
“We’re certainly seeing the broader market … starting to do a lot better post the Trump win,” he said, adding it’s “just a nice way to end the year,” which was largely dominated by gains in the major tech names because of artificial intelligence.
Target’s earnings miss earlier in the week prompted the retailer’s stock to drop, but Taylor said the market has been taking that news as company-specific rather than as an indicator of consumer behaviour.
“In some situations, you’d say that’s a negative sign of the economy,” he said.
In contrast, Walmart’s earnings this week were strong, as was its forecast.
Bitcoin continued its meteoric post-election rise, hovering around US$99,000, according to CoinDesk.
The Canadian dollar traded for 71.54 cents US compared with 71.63 cents US on Thursday.
The January crude oil contract was up US$1.14 at US$71.24 per barrel and the January natural gas contract was down 19 cents at US$3.29 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$37.30 at US$2,712.20 an ounce and the December copper contract was down four cents at US$4.09 a pound.
— With files from The Associated Press
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 22, 2024.
Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD)
