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Canada’s main stock index drove further into record territory on Tuesday, while U.S. markets were mixed and oil prices fell below US$80.
Optimism continued that a tentative U.S.-Iran deal on their war will reopen the Strait of Hormuz at the end of the week and get the global flow of oil going again. The price for a barrel of Brent crude fell 5.1 per cent to settle at US$78.96.
The August crude oil contract was down US$4.17 at US$75.27 per barrel.
John Zechner, chairman and lead equity manager at J. Zechner Associates, said that markets appear to be complacent regarding the situation in the Middle East and are taking comments from U.S. President Donald Trump at face value.
“They’re believing what the President’s saying, and they’re buying into this whole thing that it’s all in the rear-view mirror. I tend to think that’s far from reality, but that’s what the markets want to grasp on to right now,” he said.
Significant hurdles remain in the negotiations, including what to do with Iran’s nuclear program. But the hope on Wall Street is that this agreement will mean a long-term fix to a conflict that has worsened inflation around the world.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 328.64 points at 51,999.67. The S&P 500 index was down 42.94 points at 7,511.35, while the Nasdaq composite was down 307.60 points at 26,376.34.
Stocks that had benefited from the boom in artificial-intelligence technology weighed on the market in particular after some vicious swings over the last couple weeks.
They’ve been leading the market up and down amid worries that their stock prices shot too high in the mania around AI. That’s taken a toll because chip companies, makers of computer memory and other AI winners have grown so massive that they’ve become some of Wall Street’s most influential stocks.
Drops of 2.4 per cent for Nvidia, 4.4 per cent for Broadcom and 6.2 per cent for Micron Technology were the heaviest weights pulling the S&P 500 lower.
On the winning side of Wall Street was SpaceX, which rose 4.8 per cent for its third straight gain since its debut on the U.S. stock market. It said it’s moving forward with a purchase of Cursor, a popular AI coding assistant, valuing it at US$60 billion.
The U.S. Federal Reserve began its own meeting on what to do with interest rates Tuesday, with an announcement on the decision scheduled for Wednesday.
It’s the first meeting under the Fed’s new chair, Kevin Warsh, who was nominated by Trump. The U.S. president has been pushing for lower interest rates, which would give the economy a boost but also threaten to worsen inflation. The widespread expectation, though, is that the Fed will leave its main interest rate alone again.
On the Canadian stock market, gains were coming from the basic materials and financial sectors. The S&P/TSX composite index was up 113.94 points at 35,389.58.
Zechner said that those two sectors were “carrying the ball completely” and that gains in these areas can offset losses elsewhere due to the size of the materials and financial sectors.
Separately, Gildan Activewear Inc.’s shares fell by $16.24 after a short seller alleged the company obscured negative organic growth.
The Canadian dollar traded for 71.45 cents US compared with 71.52 cents US on Monday.
The August gold contract was up US$2.80 at US$4,354.40 an ounce.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 16, 2026.
— With files from The Associated Press
Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD, TSX:GIL)
Daniel Johnson, The Canadian Press
Note to readers:This is a corrected story. A previous version erroneously said Gildan shares fell by 16.24 per cent.
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