The S&P/TSX Composite closed Wednesday at 35,578.04, up 208.96 points or 0.59%, as gains in battery metals and energy offset renewed weakness in technology names. Gold added $82.10 to close at $4,158.50 an ounce and WTI crude settled at $86.95 a barrel, both at their highest levels in more than five weeks.
Wall Street had a rougher session. The S&P 500 fell 0.14% to 7,498.96, the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.5% in its weakest close in more than a week, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished essentially flat. Investors were de-risking into the two most closely watched earnings reports of the week, and those reports did not go well. Alphabet fell roughly 4% and Tesla dropped about 5% in after-hours trading once both companies posted second-quarter results.
What Wall Street Was Bracing For
Alphabet delivered sales growth of 24% for the quarter, with cloud revenue up 81%, but free cash flow turned negative as $45 billion in capital expenditures outweighed operating cash flow. Tesla's revenue rose 26%, but adjusted earnings per share came in well below Wall Street's estimate, and the company faces a production transition away from its core EV lineup toward Cybercab, Megapack 3 and other new lines.
The daytime session had already signalled where sentiment was heading before either report landed. ServiceNow fell 6.47% Wednesday, IBM dropped 2.25% and Intel was down 2.68%, all reporting or trading ahead of their own results the same week. The AI capital-spending debate that has shadowed this earnings season all quarter showed up in the share prices before it showed up in the transcripts.
Why the TSX Didn't Feel Any of This Yet
Toronto's benchmark carries negligible direct weight in Alphabet, Tesla, ServiceNow or Intel, and Wednesday's gain came almost entirely from a different source: battery metals and materials names tracking higher gold and copper prices, and energy producers tracking WTI's climb toward $87. The index also carried forward some momentum from Tuesday, when Bombardier gained 3.6% on a letter of intent covering twelve business jets for a Saudi buyer, with options for 48 more.
The Canadian dollar traded at 71.01 cents US, little changed on the day, and the Government of Canada 10-year yield held in the mid 3.5% range. Neither currency nor rates markets moved sharply Wednesday, which reinforces that the day's real split was sector-specific and geographic, not a broad risk repricing. The TSX's own read-through to US technology sentiment runs through Shopify and Celestica, both worth watching when Toronto opens today.
Wednesday's full asset sweep shows the day in one frame, commodities and the TSX higher, Wall Street's benchmarks lower into the close, and the after-hours earnings reaction sharper still.
Alphabet and Tesla figures reflect after-hours trading following second-quarter earnings releases and are not final settled prices. Source: The Motley Fool, Yahoo Finance.
What to Watch at the Open
Nasdaq futures were down about 1% Wednesday evening as the after-hours reaction to Alphabet and Tesla firmed up, an early signal for how U.S. equities may open today. The TSX does not carry direct earnings exposure to either name, but a soft US tech open historically pulls Shopify and Celestica lower in sympathy even on days when Canadian commodity producers are moving the other way. Watch the opening hour for whether the TSX's own tech names decouple from the materials and energy strength that carried the index Wednesday.