S&P/TSX reverses midday losses to end modestly higher, U.S. markets mixed

The exterior of the TMX is seen in Toronto, Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

TORONTO — Gains in the consumer cyclicals sector helped push the S&P/TSX composite index to finish modestly higher on Monday, while U.S. markets were mixed.

Michael Currie, senior investment adviser at TD Wealth, said that U.S. markets benefited from enthusiasm around large tech companies amid some dealmaking activity.  

Amazon was the No. 2 force pushing the market higher. It rallied four per cent after announcing a US$38 billion agreement with OpenAI, which will use Amazon’s cloud computing services to run its AI workloads. OpenAI will be able to power its AI tools using Nvidia’s specialized AI chips through Amazon Web Services as part of the deal announced Monday. 

“OpenAI and Amazon, they signed a big deal so they get to use Nvidia chips … obviously OpenAI is partly owned by Microsoft, so you’ve got, like, four or five of the big players all involved in the story,” Currie said.

Nvidia was the strongest force lifting the S&P 500, just like it has been for the year so far. The chip company rose 2.2 per cent to bring its gain for the year to date to 54.1 per cent.

Currie noted that declines on the Dow Jones industrial average came as only around five of the 30 stocks on the index saw gains. 

On the losing end of Wall Street on Monday was Kimberly-Clark, which dropped 14.6 per cent after it said it would buy Kenvue in a deal valuing it at US$48.7 billion. Kenvue, which sells Tylenol, Band-Aids and Listerine, jumped 12.3 per cent.

“I’m not sure what the market thinks of it.  Kenvue is up a lot, but it’s not as much as people might have anticipated, and Kimberly-Clark’s down about (14) per cent. So it’s not being super well received,” Currie said.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 226.19 points at 47,336.68. The S&P 500 index was up 11.77 points at 6,851.97, while the Nasdaq composite was up 109.77 points at 23,834.72.

Meanwhile, Currie said gains in gold and oil prices helped lift the TSX.

The S&P/TSX composite was up 14.32 points at 30,275.06.

The December crude oil contract was up seven cents US at US$61.05 per barrel. The December gold contract was up US$17.50 an ounce at US$4,014.00.

Currie noted that investors will be paying close attention to the federal budget, which is set to be released Tuesday afternoon. 

The government has said this budget — Prime Minister Mark Carney’s first — is built around boosting investment in Canada and shifting trade away from an increasingly protectionist U.S. under President Donald Trump.

He highlighted that one area markets will be paying particular attention to is government spending. 

“You want to spend to get the economy going, but you don’t want to spend too much because it kills the currency, and I think that’s going to be probably the closest watch thing from a stock market point of view,” he said.

The Canadian dollar traded for 71.14 cents US, compared with 71.34 cents US on Friday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 3, 2025.  

Daniel Johnson, The Canadian Press. With files from The Associated Press.