TORONTO — Canada's main stock index ended lower after a choppy trading day while U.S. markets jumped on positive earnings from big tech.
"It's clearly the tech names today that's driving everything," said Ian Chong, portfolio manager for First Avenue Investment Counsel Inc.
After market close Wednesday, both Meta and Microsoft reported solid results, he said, noting the Facebook-owner showed positive advertising revenue while Microsoft's cloud computing business also surprised to the upside.
Both companies also emphasized their commitment to artificial intelligence to help boost the broader industry, said Chong.
"What's really driving this market today is both these companies noted that they were committed to spending on AI infrastructure."
Microsoft closed up 7.6 per cent while Meta was up 4.2 per cent, helping push the S&P 500 index climb 35.08 points at 5,604.14, while the Nasdaq composite was up 264.40 points at 17,710.74. The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 83.60 points at 40,752.96.
The S&P/TSX composite index swung up and down as tech companies like Shopify Inc., up 2.45 per cent, helped boost the tech sector while a pullback in gold prices led to losses in big miners like Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd., down 3.87 per cent, and Barrick Gold Corp., down 3.23 per cent. Alamos Gold Inc., which had reported results, was down over nine per cent.
Overall, the S&P/TSX composite index closed down 46.13 points at 24,795.55 as utilities and telecoms also retreated.
But the focus of the day was on tech, and the spinoff benefits of major tech companies reiterating their commitment to spending, said Chong.
"These two large hyper scalers committed to spending huge amounts of money, not only drove a lot of the tech names ... but it threw the AI complex theme back into the forefront."
That helped boost chipmakers like Nvidia, but even network equipment operators such as Toronto-based Celestica Inc., which was up five per cent on the day.
Markets also continue to get a boost from the gradual thawing of trade tensions, said Chong.
"There could still be some carry forward goodwill from all this talk about trade negotiations getting scaled back. There's progress made with Europe and Japan and South Korea."
The easing tensions took more away from gold, with the June gold contract down US$96.90 at US$3,222.20 an ounce, while the July copper contract was up two cents US at US$4.63 a pound.
The ISM Manufacturing Index for April did show a contraction, it wasn't as bad as feared, keeping on the sense that economic repercussions of tariffs are still holding off.
After market close, both Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc. also reported earnings that beat analyst expectations.
There will be more big economic data out of the U.S. Friday as it reports new job growth.
The Canadian dollar traded for 72.28 cents US compared with 72.40 cents US on Thursday.
The June crude oil contract was up US$1.03 at US$59.24 per barrel and the June natural gas contract was up 15 cents US at US$3.48 per mmBTU.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 1, 2025.
Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD)
The Canadian Press
