US markets hit new heights despite Canada trade talks blow
Wall Street staged an end-of-week rally with American indices closing at new highs, boosted by the ceasefire in the Middle East and a renewed appetite for shares in artificial intelligence companies.
It was a close run thing, however. While the S&P 500 and Nasdaq had comfortably risen above previous records, the gains were pared or even erased after President Trump said he was calling off trade negotiations with Canada, citing its digital services tax and adding that he would set their tariff rate within a week.
At the close of official trading in New York on Friday night, the S&P 500 had its first record since February with a rise of 0.5 per cent to 6,173.07 and a weekly increase of 3.4 per cent.
Nvidia, the chip designer, led the charge back into AI stocks with a rise of 1.7 per cent to $157.75, a third successive record close and increasing its stock market valuation to $3.9 trillion, ahead of Microsoft's $3.7 trillion.
The AI effect was also enough to take the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite to its first record close since December with a rise of 0.5 per cent to 20,273.46, up 4.3 per cent over the five days.
The upbeat market mood was in contrast to the start of the week after the US bombing raid on Iran's nuclear facilities and the exchanges of missiles between Israel and Iran, which sent the price of Brent crude, the international benchmark, closer to $80 a barrel.
The oil price had its steepest weekly decline since March 2023. In New York it was trading 4 cents a barrel higher on the day at $67.77, down 12 per cent on the week. Gold lost some of its recent shine, down 1.8 per cent on the day at $3,273.70 an ounce, after Trump said on Thursday night that the US had signed a trade deal with China.
On the currency markets, after a brief bout of buying early in the week, the dollar continued to lose favour with traders, leaving the pound close to the near four-year high it reached on Thursday, though a mid-afternoon sell-off left it 0.25 per cent down at $1.3691.
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