TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index closed higher on Friday on broad-based gains, while U.S. markets also gained ground to close out a volatile week of trading.
“The markets are exhibiting a little bit of a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde type of behaviour over the past two days; (we are) just seeing a bit of recovery after yesterday’s steep sell-off,” said Macan Nia, co-chief investment strategist at Manulife Investment Management.
Nia said the TSX performance on Friday was a “microcosm” of what has driven the index so far this year. He said the TSX is up about 22 per cent this year and has been mainly driven by three themes, including financials, gold and the performance of Shopify Inc.
“As of earlier this week, I think those three themes have accounted for around 80 per cent of the TSX returns, and then look at today, it’s the same drivers,” Nia said.
Shopify shares were up 2.14 per cent on the day, adding the most points to the overall index on Friday. The December gold contract was up US$19.50 at US$4,079.50 an ounce.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 254.10 points at 30,160.65.
Meanwhile, Nia said U.S. markets were digesting a few key elements heading into 2026. This includes Nvidia earnings, reported on Wednesday, which resulted in a strong initial rally followed by a sell-off and a “subsequent rally today.”
He noted markets are also digesting valuation concerns regarding large AI names along with parsing through the recent U.S. jobs data, released Thursday, which didn’t provide a “solid picture of the U.S. economy given its delay.”
Despite the strong profit report from Nvidia, whose chips are powering the move into AI, worries are still hanging around about the longer term. Will all those AI chips and data centres that Amazon, Meta Platforms and other companies are gobbling up actually turn into big profits and productivity? If not, some investors fear, all the investment won’t be worth it.
Nia noted that while Nvidia “did nothing wrong” in its latest earnings report, there are questions around depreciation.
“For example, how long can one use these chips? Is it an eight-year life cycle? Is it a five-year life cycle? And that was the new things that were brought up over the last couple of weeks that have required investors to digest,” he said.
AI-linked stocks continued to swing on Friday, helping to drag the rest of the market behind them. Nvidia went from an initial gain to a drop of 4.3 per cent and then swung back and forth before finishing with a loss of one per cent, for example. Amazon went from an early loss to a gain of 1.6 per cent.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 493.15 points at 46,245.41. The S&P 500 index was up 64.23 points at 6,602.99, while the Nasdaq composite was up 195.03 points at 22,273.08.
The Canadian dollar traded for 70.92 cents US compared with 71.02 cents US on Thursday.
The January crude oil contract was down 94 cents US at US$58.06 per barrel.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 21, 2025.
— With files from The Associated Press.
Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD, TSX: SHOP)
