S&P/TSX composite ends higher, U.S. stock markets also up

TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index ended higher, while markets in the United States were up as Big Tech continued its streak of larger profits on Thursday.

The gains are “very heavy on the tech side,” said Konstantin Boehmer, head of fixed income and portfolio manager at Mackenzie Investments.

However, he said there’s a growing bifurcation happening on the market.

“You’ve seen a meaningful amount of 52-week lows in stocks despite having all-time highs in the index,” Boehmer said.

That’s somewhat problematic for the market, where many investors are chasing the winners for their portfolio and “that’s just self-perpetuating that move higher and higher in those stocks,” he said.

The S&P/TSX composite index was up 226.84 points at 34,268.27.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 370.26 points at 50,063.46. The S&P 500 index was up 56.99 points at 7,501.24, while the Nasdaq composite was up 232.88 points at 26,635.22.

Big Tech behemoths in particular are pouring cash into artificial-intelligence technology in the U.S., and Cisco gave a forecast for profit in the current quarter that easily topped analysts’ expectations.

Such voracious demand for AI, and the big profits it’s producing, have been major reasons the U.S. stock market has set records throughout this year. Cerebras Systems, an AI processor company, raised US$5.55 billion after selling its stock in an initial public offering, and its shares surged 68.1 per cent in their debut on the Nasdaq on Thursday.

Boehmer said investors are clearly rewarding companies that are investing in artificial intelligence, pointing to a jump in Ford Motor Co.’s share price this week, after the automaker announced it will offer battery energy storage systems.

“That is something that the equity market is rewarding because it is tied to AI, it is tied to building out that infrastructure as opposed to being stuck in the old economy,” he said.

The June crude oil contract was up 15 cents US at US$101.17 per barrel.

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz because of the war in Iran has kept oil tankers pent up in the Persian Gulf instead of delivering crude to customers worldwide, which has driven up global oil prices.

Boehmer said oil prices are expected to remain elevated in the next few weeks without a peace deal between the U.S. and Iran, which would likely feed into inflationary pressures across the board.

The Canadian dollar traded for 72.86 cents US compared with 72.98 cents US on Wednesday.

Boehmer said a weaker loonie isn’t a Canadian-specific story.

“That is a U.S. story,” he said, pointing to economic data on U.S. retail sales and consumer price index this week indicating healthy U.S. consumer demand even as inflation rose.

“You can see those inflationary pressures and if you have inflationary pressures and a good economy, that’s generally good for the U.S. dollar,” he said.

The June gold contract was down US$21.40 at US$4,685.30 an ounce.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 14, 2026.

Companies in this story: (TSX: GSPTSE, TSX: CADUSD)

— With files from The Associated Press.