TSX climbs on CoreWeave earnings and rising energy prices

Canada's main stock index rose on Wednesday as strong quarterly results from U.S. cloud-computing firm CoreWeave revived interest in artificial-intelligence stocks and a rebound in oil prices boosted energy shares. At 11:08 a.m. ET, the S&P/TSX Composite was up 243.2 points, or 0.67%, at 36,413.65.

Technology stocks led gains, climbing 1.8%, with Celestica and BlackBerry up 7.5% and 4.3% respectively. CoreWeave, which had been at the centre of a recent AI sell-off, saw its shares rise almost 22% after reporting a smaller loss than expected and forecasting profitability in the first half of 2028.

“We had a big shock last week, and we’re coming through it. This week, we also have the major news of the Anthropic IPO. I think there will be a concerted effort to keep markets higher so that the IPO goes off without a hitch,” said Greg Taylor, chief investment officer at PenderFund Capital Management.

The energy sector advanced 2.2% following a jump in Brent crude after Iran’s security chief said the country would not allow any enriched nuclear material to leave Iran. Specialty label and packaging firm CCL Industries rose 2.6% after beating sales estimates, while Boyd Group fell 11.1% on a profit miss.

Lithium Americas dropped 7.8% after raising the cost estimate for the first phase of its Thacker Pass project by 31% to $3.83 billion, citing higher labor, construction and logistics costs.

In the United States, the S&P 500 gained 1% and the Nasdaq composite rose 1.6%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.1%. CoreWeave’s earnings also helped lift other AI-related stocks, including Micron Technology (+11.7%), Broadcom (+5.3%) and Nvidia (+3.2%).

Higher oil prices pushed Brent crude up 1.2% to US$92.63 per barrel, supporting energy-related equities. The rise in yields followed a worse-than-expected U.S. inflation reading, which has heightened expectations for further Federal Reserve rate hikes.

Across Europe and Asia, most indexes posted gains, with South Korea’s Kospi up 2.6% and Shanghai’s index rising 0.5% as China’s Singles Day shopping festival began.