TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index finished in negative territory Friday, but largely avoided the weight of falling AI stocks.
The S&P/TSX composite index was down 31.29 points at 36,105.90.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 50.46 points at 52,347.55. The S&P 500 index was down 30.73 points at 7,561.67, while the Nasdaq composite was down 229.82 points at 25,136.27.
Major U.S. indexes have been unsteady throughout the week as AI-focused companies pushed and pulled the market. Many of those companies have big stock values with a heavier effect on the market’s gains or losses.
“Today we’re seeing elements of resilience in Canada because it’s got a higher index concentration in some of these defensive rotation bond proxy sectors, so that’s helping the TSX to hold up relatively better,” said Brian Madden, chief investment officer with First Avenue Investment Counsel.
“(The) real estate sector is up today, utilities, staples, the telcos, whereas the U.S. is feeling the weight of the tech sector heavily on its back today and this week.”
The U.S. market remains unsteady a day after the AI industry was rocked by the resignation of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. The company has been the face of the AI industry, which has been responsible for much of the gains and big swings on Wall Street.
Huang stepped down after his affair with a Chinese tech executive raised U.S. national security concerns. Nvidia’s longtime chief financial officer, Colette Kress, will be its interim CEO.
“Nvidia is of course one of the biggest companies in the world and among the highest weighted names in the S&P 500, but the contagion effect of what’s happened there is limited,” Madden said.
“If anything, yesterday we saw some money flow into some of its competitors, probably investors wanting to maintain exposure to the AI and data center trade but wanting to avoid the taint of what has befallen Nvidia.”
The AI industry’s influence over Wall Street was evident again Friday, as the slump in technology stocks with a big focus on AI weighed on the market, even though more than 60 per cent of the stocks within the S&P 500 rose.
Outside of the AI sector, investors have been sifting through corporate earnings reports for the third quarter.
Madden said earnings reports have been broadly positive both in Canada and the U.S., with it “turning out to be a banner year for earnings growth.”
Looking ahead to next week, he said he will be watching earnings from Nvidia, scheduled to be released on Tuesday, and a potential initial public offering from Anthropic.
Anthropic, the company behind the Claude chatbot, said in a filing with U.S. regulators on Tuesday that it’s looking to sell its stock at a price valuing the company at roughly US$1.3 trillion.
Next week, investors will also get the latest Canadian inflation data on Monday from Statistics Canada.
Canada’s inflation rate is expected to remain elevated, but economists are divided over whether rising energy costs will fuel broader price increases.
As of Friday afternoon, a Reuters poll of economists predicted the annual rate of inflation rose to 3.2 per cent in October, up from 3.1 per cent in September, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.
The Canadian dollar traded for 70.14 cents US compared with 70.15 cents US on Thursday.
The December crude oil contract was down 18 cents US at US$88.56 per barrel.
The December gold contract was up US$1.00 at US$3,886.30 an ounce.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2026.
Companies in this story: (TSX: GSPTSE, TSX: CADUSD)
— With files from the Associated Press.
