Tech, industrial stocks help lift S&P/TSX composite, U.S. stock markets up slightly

TORONTO — Strength in technology and industrial stocks helped Canada's main stock index creep higher on Friday, while U.S. stock markets rose slightly on the final day of trading for the week.

The S&P/TSX composite index was up 62.46 points at 20,693.15.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 22.34 points at 33,808.96. The S&P 500 index was up 3.73 points at 4,133.52, while the Nasdaq composite was up 12.90 points at 12,072.46.

Colin Cieszynski, chief market strategist at SIA Wealth Management, said Canadian stocks benefited from a weaker Canadian dollar on Friday.

"All else being equal, if the Canadian dollar goes down the TSX tends to go up because a lot of stocks are inter-listed in the States," he said.

The Canadian dollar traded for 73.86 cents US, compared with 74.24 cents US on Thursday.

Cieszynski noted that "currency is part of the story, but it's not the whole story." He said materials stocks were down on Friday, likely as a result of commodity prices.

"But if I look at major sectors, overall, the firm majority of them are up," he said. "Most of the market's actually doing pretty good today."

The June crude contract was up 50 cents at US$77.87 per barrel and the June natural gas contract was down two cents at US$2.41 per mmBTU (million British thermal units).

The June gold contract was down US$28.60 at US$1,990.50 an ounce and the May copper contract was down five cents at US$3.98 a pound.

Cieszynski said he's also keeping an eye on U.S. earnings season, which is set to ramp up next week.

"Not too many barn burners, but not too many huge disappointments either," he said.

"The next two, three weeks are the heart of earnings season. We're just going to get a flood of results. So really, that's the big story moving forward for the near term."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 21, 2023.