Canadian and U.S. stock markets inch higher despite gains in oil prices

Scott Chronert, managing director at Citi Research, joins BNN Bloomberg to discuss U.S. equity strategy and provide a case for the NASDAQ 100.

Canadian and U.S. stock markets rose on Monday despite gains in oil prices and the war in Iran threatening to drag on.

“(Markets) are not as robust as they were last week, but we’re coming off of six or seven weeks of pretty solid, rambunctious gains,” said Carol Schleif, chief market strategist at BMO Private Wealth.

The S&P/TSX composite index was up 61.12 points at 34,138.88.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 rose 0.2 per cent from its prior all-time high set on Friday. The majority of stocks within the S&P 500 fell, even though the overall index rose.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 95.31 points at 49,704.47. The S&P 500 index was up 13.91 points at 7,412.84, while the Nasdaq composite was up 27.05 points at 26,274.13.

Schleif said the consolidation of recent gains comes ahead of the release of U.S. economic data later this week and U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to China. 

“Net net, when you step back and look at where earnings have come in, it’s been a pretty amazing first quarter for earnings, and I think markets are really leaning into those fundamentals,” she said. 

Meanwhile, Trump said the U.S.-Iran ceasefire was on “life support” after he rejected Iran’s latest proposal to end their war. The rejection raises the stakes for Trump’s trip this week to China, where he could urge President Xi Jinping to pressure Iran into making concessions. Xi has influence because China is the biggest buyer of Iran’s sanctioned crude oil. 

Schleif said markets do not seem to be paying much attention to the situation in the Middle East. 

“Markets are looking through or past it much the same way that they obsessed about tariffs for a while last year and then moved beyond it, even though we’ve still got lots of stuff going on with tariffs … markets in general tend to really move past geopolitical stuff pretty quickly,” she said. 

The June crude oil contract was up US$2.65 at US$98.07 per barrel.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil climbed 2.9 per cent to settle at US$104.21

The war in Iran has already sent the price of Brent up from roughly US$70 and delivered a blast of painful inflation through the global economy. That’s because the conflict has shut the Strait of Hormuz and kept oil tankers stuck in the Persian Gulf instead of delivering crude to customers worldwide.

Companies are, meanwhile, producing bigger profits than analysts expected, while signals suggest the U.S. economy is holding up even though households are feeling discouraged by expensive gasoline and tariffs.

Tech stocks were strong, continuing their big run amid the AI boom. Gains of two per cent for Nvidia and 6.5 per cent for Micron Technology were the strongest forces pushing the S&P 500 upward.

More than four out of every five companies in the S&P 500 that have reported their results for the latest quarter so far have topped profit expectations, and they’re on track to deliver overall growth of nearly 28 per cent, according to FactSet. If that turns out to be the case, it would be the best growth since the end of 2021.

In the Canadian stock market, much of the gains were coming from the basic materials and energy sectors.

The Canadian dollar traded for 73.17 cents US compared with 73.07 cents US on Friday.

The June gold contract was down US$2.00 at US$4,728.70 an ounce.  

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

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 11, 2026.