TORONTO — Strength in energy, financials and base metals helped Canada's main stock index gain more than 200 points Monday, while U.S. stock markets also rose.
Monday saw markets continue to recover some of the losses of the past couple of weeks, said Mona Mahajan, senior investment strategist at Edward Jones.
U.S. President Donald Trump in the span of two weeks enacted sweeping tariffs, delayed some of them, introduced others and threatened still more.
Amid the back-and-forth of tariff announcements, delays and threats, the S&P 500 tipped into correction territory last week as markets tumbled on the uncertainty of the burgeoning trade war.
“(It’s) not uncommon to see a bounce after a 10 per cent correction in the S&P 500 and a period of softness, really, since mid-February,” said Mahajan.
The next deadline for tariffs is April 2, when Trump’s promised “reciprocal” tariffs come into power. Other tariffs on certain sectors could come on that date as well. Not long after, the one-month exemptions on products from Canada and the U.S. will expire.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 231.71 points at 24,785.11.
On Tuesday, Canada will get inflation data for February. Mahajan said at least for now, it seems inflation in Canada has been contained — but the coming months could change that depending on how Trump’s tariff policies evolve.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 353.44 points at 41,841.63. The S&P 500 index was up 36.18 points at 5,675.12, while the Nasdaq composite was up 54.58 points at 17,808.66.
Market watchers got the latest data on U.S. retail sales Monday. The report, while somewhat weaker than economists expected, wasn’t all bad news.
“It did reaffirm that the consumer is not collapsing” after a concerning January readout, said Mahajan.
“I think generally, it kind of provided a bit of relief for markets that maybe the consumer is still in decent shape despite the uncertainties and overhangs they're seeing from the policy side.”
On Wednesday, the U.S. Federal Reserve will release its next interest rate decision, widely expected to be a hold. What will be more interesting to investors is what chairman Jerome Powell will have to say about tariffs and the economy, said Mahajan.
The Fed previously projected just two rate cuts for 2025, but it’s possible it could add a third to its forecast, she said.
Meanwhile, it’s also possible the Fed could downgrade its economic growth forecast, said Mahajan.
“If there’s a downgrade ... that could indicate that perhaps they see softness on the horizon, which may lead to more speculation that rate cuts are coming,” she said.
The Canadian dollar traded for 69.91 cents US compared with 69.50 cents US on Friday.
The May crude oil contract was up 46 cents at US$67.37 per barrel and the April natural gas contract was down eight cents at US$4.02 per mmBTU.
The April gold contract was up US$5.00 at US$3,006.10 an ounce and the May copper contract was up six cents at US$4.96 a pound.
— With files from The Associated Press
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 17, 2025.
Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD)
Rosa Saba, The Canadian Press
