Canadian stocks finished higher on Wednesday as technology shares advanced on the back of strong US earnings that pointed to continued demand for artificial intelligence technologies. Gains among major financial stocks also helped support the benchmark index. On the political front, Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne announced that the federal budget will be tabled on November 5.
South of the border, US markets posted gains, led by the NASDAQ Composite, as investors returned to technology stocks following news from SpaceX and Tesla. SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX) surged after reporting third-quarter revenue growth of 161%, while Elon Musk disclosed that SpaceX and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) have formed committees to evaluate a possible merger. Tesla shares rose more than 2% ahead of its earnings report.
The strong expansion of SpaceX’s AI business, which grew ninefold, reignited momentum across the AI sector. AMD (NASDAQ:AMD), Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO), and Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) each climbed. Investors also looked ahead to earnings from Meta (NASDAQ:META), IBM (NYSE:IBM), and Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV), with Meta’s latest AI initiatives remaining a key focus for the market.
| TSX | 36,324.99 | +217.03 |  |
| TSXV | 848.54 | +2.54 | |
| CSE | 142.61 | +3.12 | |
| DJIA | 52,856.09 | +360.21 | |
| NASDAQ | 26,702.86 | +278.04 | |
| S&P 500 | 7,757.17 | +44.60 | |
The Canadian dollar traded for 71.15 cents US compared to 71.13 cents US on Tuesday.
US crude futures traded US$0.73 lower at US$97.09 a barrel, and the Brent contract lost US$0.16 to US$108.60 a barrel.
The price of gold was up US$8.37 to US$4,132.05.
In world markets, the Nikkei was up 545.82 points to ¥64,621.24, the Hang Seng was down 215.87 points to HK$23,651.87, the FTSE was up 19.88 points to ₤10,752.88, and the DAX was up 342.69 points to €25,647.11.