S&P/TSX composite index reaches record high as energy and base metals sector soars

Canada's main stock index topped 30,000 for the first time as strength in the energy and base metal sectors helped it climb into record territory, while U.S. stock markets were mixed in late-morning trading on Tuesday.

The S&P/TSX composite index surpassed 30,000 at some points in early trading, before dipping back down. As of 12:30 p.m. ET, the index was hovering just above that mark.

Brian Madden, chief investment officer with First Avenue Investment Counsel, said a "reasonably broad-based rally" sent the TSX over the 30,000 threshold. He noted gold has been a big factor in the performance of Canada's main stock index this year. On Tuesday, he said strength in energy and financials helped push the index higher.

"We had anticipated we'd breached this threshold; it may have come a little sooner than we thought, but the markets are gripped with momentum," Madden said.

"For us, as medium and long-term investors, we know we're going to pass through psychological milestones and round numbers every so often, but it's eyes forward, eyes on the prize ... and we like what we're seeing here."

Going forward, he said he expects the momentum to continue, noting that "market rallies can extend a lot longer than people sometimes anticipate they will," pointing to tailwinds like improving corporate profits and lower borrowing costs in Canada and the U.S.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 66.27 points at 46,381.54. The S&P 500 index was up 29.39 points at 6,693.75, while the Nasdaq composite was up 157.50 points at 22,788.98.

Shares in chipmaker Nvidia soared 3.9 per cent after it announced it will invest $100 billion US in OpenAI, owner of the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT. The partnership is to add at least 10 gigawatts of Nvidia AI data centres to ramp up OpenAI's computing power.

Nvidia is Wall Street's most valuable company.

"So that is going to move the markets quite a bit," said Ian Chong, portfolio manager at First Avenue Investment Counsel. "On top of that, you've got a whole bunch of ancillary stocks that are benefiting from this news."

For instance, U.S. utilities are seeing a bump, as new data centres would require massive amounts of electricity to power and cool their operations.

Oracle Corp. also pushed the market higher with a 6.3 per cent gain. A senior official in U.S. President Donald Trump's administration said the tech giant will receive a copy of TikTok's algorithm to operate for U.S. users, part of the deal to keep the popular platform running in the country.

Another big tech mover was Apple Inc., whose shares were up 4.3 per cent. Early indications are that demand is strong for its newly released iPhone 17 and there's potential for it to grow in the Chinese market, Chong noted.

The strength in tech filtered through to Canada's main index, with shares in e-commerce platform Shopify Inc. up 2.7 per cent.

Another big driver behind strength on the TSX has been the boom in gold prices. The December gold contract was up $69.30 US at $3,775.10 US an ounce on Monday.

Barrick Mining Corp. rose 7.4 per cent on Monday, after it announced last week that a study had found a project in Nevada could produce up to 750,000 ounces of gold annually. Meanwhile Kinross Gold Corp. shares rose 3.8 per cent.

"While gold has done really well over the past year and a bit, the gold miners haven't done as well until more recently," said Chong.

"So it's playing a lot of catch-up and a lot these names are really firing on all cylinders."