Canada’s main stock index rose to a record high on Tuesday, with industrial and metal mining shares among the biggest gainers as investors weighed whether a recent rotation out of technology shares would continue.
The S&P/TSX composite index ended up 233.51 points, or 0.7%, at 33,256.83, eclipsing the record closing high it posted on January 28.
U.S. markets were mixed, with the benchmark S&P 500 ending lower after the release of disappointing U.S. retail sales figures.
Investors have worried in recent weeks about the amount of money technology companies say they must spend to support the artificial-intelligence boom.
“Whether this rotation continues out of tech into other sectors or do we go back to tech companies depends on this week’s macro data,” said Michael Dehal, a senior portfolio manager at Dehal Investment Partners at Raymond James. “It would be a big catalyst for how the markets kind of play out for the next couple of weeks.”
The delayed but closely watched U.S. nonfarm payrolls report is due on Wednesday.
Data on Tuesday showed U.S. retail sales unexpectedly stalled in December as households scaled back spending on vehicles and other big-ticket items, suggesting a slower growth path for consumer spending and the economy heading into the new year. The flat reading compared with economists’ estimates for 0.4% growth.
A separate report from the Labor Department showed the Employment Cost Index (ECI), the broadest measure of labour costs, rose 0.7% in the fourth quarter after advancing 0.8% in the July-September quarter and below the estimate for a 0.8% rise as demand for labour has waned.
Trader hopes edged up for a more dovish Federal Reserve with the probability of a one-notch April rate cut up to 36.9% from 32.2% on Monday, according to CME Group’s FedWatch tool. Markets still expect, however, that the central bank will keep rates on hold until June, when President Donald Trump’s Fed chair nominee, Kevin Warsh, would take charge if approved by the U.S. Senate.
Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott, described the disappointing retail data as “bad news is good news,” particularly for rate-sensitive industry indexes such as utilities and real estate, which were leading the benchmark’s sector gainers.
Those gains were buoyed by lower bond yields. The yield on the benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury note fell 5.1 basis points to 4.147%, its fourth straight day of declines. The yield has dropped more than 13 basis points over that timeframe, its biggest four-day drop since mid-October. Other data from the Labor Department on Tuesday said U.S. import prices were unchanged on a year-on-year basis in December after falling 0.1% in November.
Gains for railroad shares helped lift the TSX industrials sector by 1%. The materials group, which includes metal mining shares, was up 0.9% even as gold gave back some recent gains.
Heavily weighted financials added 0.6%, while utilities were up 0.5%.
Shares of e-commerce company Shopify Inc jumped 7.4%. Still, the technology index ended 0.2% lower.
Consumer staples also lost ground, falling 0.7%.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 communication services sector was the market’s weakest sector, weighed down by Alphabet shares, which fell 1.8% after Google’s parent said it sold bonds worth US$20 billion. The announcement played in to investor worries about the amount of money technology companies say they must spend to support the artificial-intelligence boom, with Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft collectively set to spend hundreds of billions in 2026 as they race for AI dominance.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 52.27 points, or 0.10%, to 50,188.14, after hitting an intraday record high earlier in the day. The S&P 500 lost 23.01 points, or 0.33%, to 6,941.81 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 136.20 points, or 0.59%, to 23,102.47.
Gains of more than 2% in stocks such as Walt Disney and Home Depot helped push up the blue-chip Dow, countering declines in shares including Coca-Cola, which finished down 1.5% after missing Wall Street estimates for fourth-quarter revenue.
In other individual stocks, Datadog jumped 13.7% and led S&P 500 percentage gainers on the day after the cloud-based monitoring and analytics platform beat quarterly estimates.
In the consumer discretionary sector, Marriott closed up 8.5% for its biggest daily gain since April after also hitting a record high. The hotel chain projected a 35% jump in fees from co-branded credit cards, as affluent travelers splurge on luxury vacations.
Shares of S&P Global slumped 9.7%, making it the biggest loser in the S&P 500 after forecasting 2026 profit below analysts’ estimates. Peers Moody’s and MSCI also fell.
Spotify shares soared 14.7% after the audio-streaming platform forecast first-quarter earnings above expectations, benefiting from strong user growth and price hikes.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.47-to-1 ratio on the NYSE where there were 795 new highs and 65 new lows. On the Nasdaq, 2,276 stocks rose and 2,447 fell as declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.08-to-1 ratio. The S&P 500 posted 72 new 52-week highs and 11 new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 105 new highs and 107 new lows.
On U.S. exchanges, 17.89 billion shares changed hands compared with the 20.68 billion-share moving average for the last 20 sessions.