Canadian Stocks Edge Higher Amid PMI Data

(RTTNews) - Canadian stocks climbed on Wednesday, with strength in the consumer and real estate sectors balancing the slump in technology stocks while traders parsed data on business activity.

After opening above the previous session's close, today the benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index gradually lost momentum until the early afternoon after which it gained ground before settling at 32,564.13, up by 175.53 points (or 0.54%).

Ten of the 11 sectors posted gains today, with the consumer discretionary sector leading the pack.

S&P Global's Composite Purchasing Managers' Index for Canada came in 46.4 in January 2026, down from 46.7 in December 2025, remaining below the 50.0 no-change mark for a third straight month.

The data revealed stable growth in manufacturing sector, though services fell to 45.8 from 46.5. New business volumes declined for the fourteenth consecutive month.

On the sidelines of the inaugural Critical Minerals Ministerial meeting convened by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, External Affairs Minister of India Jaishankar held talks with Canada's Foreign Minister Anita Anand.

Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney is likely to visit India in March to ink several bilateral agreements on uranium, energy, critical minerals, and Artificial Intelligence.

In his efforts to expand Canada's trade footprints outside the U.S., Carney has already visited China and Qatar to strike new agreements.

Canada-U.S. relations have soured after U.S. President Donald Trump assumed leadership for the second time, compelling Carney to explore non-U.S. marketplaces for Canada's exports.

Of note, days before, Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced bilateral trade agreements after which Trump brought down the tariffs on India to 18%.

In the U.S., Anthropic unveiled an upgrade to its AI stack through Claude Cowork and Claude Code labelling them as automation tools rather than chatbots.

U.S. traders reacted negatively after concerns rose that the tool could target high-end software workflows and margins, triggering a broad-based sell-off in stocks related to IT, software, semiconductors, and cloud platforms. The panic reaction also reverberated in Canada's technology sector.

Despite Russia and Ukraine beginning the second round of peace talks with the U.S. as mediator, mutual attacks have not ceased between the two countries.

Prior to that, Russia had indicated that peace can return only if Ukraine concedes to Russia's claims on certain territories, bringing back the geopolitical risk to the markets leading to a surge in oil prices.

Oil-linked stocks in Canadian markets soared and lifted the index.

U.S. and Iran are sitting together on Friday to discuss Iran's nuclear plans.

Major sectors that gained in today's trading were Consumer Discretionary (3.32%), Consumer Staples (2.86%), Real Estate (2.59%), Industrials (1.87%), Energy (1.66%), and Communication Services (1.30%).

Among the individual stocks, Pet Valu Holdings Ltd (5.20%), Restaurant Brands International Inc (4.49%), Dollarama Inc (4.08%), Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc (4.75%), and Firstservice Corp (7.07%) were the prominent gainers.

Materials, Utilities, Financials, and Healthcare sectors gained anywhere from 0.26% to 0.81%.

Information Technology (0.35%) was the only one major sector that lost in today's trading.

Among the individual stocks, Bitfarms Ltd (12.03%), Dye & Durham Ltd (10.13%), Celestica Inc (7.16%), and Shopify Inc (3.96%) were the notable losers.

Constellation Software Inc (8.48%) and West Fraser Timber CO Ltd (7.18%) were among the prime market-moving stocks today.