Stock markets in North America moved in opposite directions on Monday as broad-based losses weighed on Canada’s benchmark index.
Philip Petursson, chief investment strategist at IG Wealth Management, said it wasn’t clear why Canadian and U.S. markets were diverging, but that it may have to do with the shortened week in Canada and the U.S., with traders “closing out some positions.”
He said the moves in the market appeared to be driven by sentiment, “but where that sentiment is coming from is the real challenge.”
The S&P/TSX composite index was down 156.18 points at 34,823.82.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 306.63 points at 52,182.74. The S&P 500 index was up 86.41 points at 7,440.43, while the Nasdaq composite was up 522.53 points at 25,820.14.
The TSX will be closed on Wednesday for Canada Day, while U.S. markets will be closed on Friday for Independence Day.
The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, climbed 1.8 per cent to US$73.91, pulling back above where it was before the war with Iran began. The August crude oil contract was up US$1.52 at US$70.75 per barrel.
Following attacks across the Persian Gulf over the weekend, the United States and Iran on Monday separately announced they will send delegations to Qatar this week, though Tehran insisted it has not agreed to meet with the United States “at any level.”
The hope is that an end to the war with Iran will give oil tankers full access again to the Strait of Hormuz, allowing them to exit the Persian Gulf and deliver crude to customers worldwide. That would help lower the price of oil, whose jumps because of the war have sent a punishing wave of inflation around the world.
“You hope that the peace deal holds, but we don’t know until there’s an actual deal and even then you don’t know how long that can last,” Petursson said.
“There was a deal in place before Trump decided to tear it up, and so that’s one of those pockets of uncertainty that can remain with us, not only through the next couple of weeks, or through the remainder of this year, but indefinitely.”
Several stocks boosted by the artificial-intelligence boom rose after Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix said they will invest roughly US$518 billion in a new chipmaking hub in South Korea, as its president hopes to capitalize on surging AI demand.
Applied Materials, whose equipment helps make semiconductors, rallied 10.8 per cent to vault its gain for the year so far above 170 per cent.
Nvidia was one of the strongest forces lifting the S&P 500, for example, after its stock rose 1.3 per cent.
SpaceX, which owns the xAI business along with rockets, has already become worth more than US$2 trillion after its stock’s ballyhooed debut on the Nasdaq earlier this month, with sharp rises and falls along the way. It’s become big enough that Nasdaq said Elon Musk’s company will join the Nasdaq 100 index before trading begins on July 7, which will force funds tracking the index to buy the stock.
SpaceX climbed 7.2 per cent.
In the Canadian stock market, all sectors were in the red except for financials.
Petursson said the outlook for the Canadian stock market remains “fairly positive” for the remainder of the year.
“Earnings growth should continue to come in strong in Canada as well as the U.S., and what we’ve seen in the first half of the year I think can continue through to the second half,” he said.
The Canadian dollar traded for 70.39 cents US compared with 70.49 cents US on Friday.
The August gold contract was down US$57.40 at US$4,038.90 an ounce.
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Daniel Johnson, The Canadian Press
With files from The Associated Press
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 29, 2026.
