U.S. stocks lower at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.51%

Investing.com – Canada stocks were lower after the close on Friday, as losses in the IT, Materials and Clean Technology sectors led shares lower.

At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite fell 0.42%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were Curaleaf Holdings Inc (TSX:CURA), which rose 37.84% or 1.40 points to trade at 5.10 at the close. Meanwhile, CAE Inc. (TSX:CAE) added 5.39% or 2.10 points to end at 41.06 and Parex Resources Inc (TSX:PXT) was up 4.10% or 0.71 points to 18.01 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Celestica Inc. (TSX:CLS), which fell 12.92% or 62.60 points to trade at 421.77 at the close. Energy Fuels Inc. (TSX:EFR) declined 7.85% or 1.71 points to end at 20.08 and NexGen Energy Ltd. (TSX:NXE) was down 5.46% or 0.71 points to 12.29.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Toronto Stock Exchange by 468 to 439 and 65 ended unchanged.

Shares in Curaleaf Holdings Inc (TSX:CURA) rose to 52-week highs; up 37.84% or 1.40 to 5.10.

The S&P/TSX 60 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/TSX Composite options, was down 3.13% to 11.75.

Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.48% or 20.90 to $4,333.90 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 0.23% or 0.13 to hit $57.47 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 0.18% or 0.11 to trade at $61.17 a barrel.

CAD/USD was unchanged 0.02% to 0.73, while CAD/EUR unchanged 0.00% to 0.62.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.01% at 98.00.

Investing.com --The S&P 500 closed sharply lower Friday as chip-led dip in tech triggered a sea of red across stocks as recent guidance from AI-linked companies including chipmakers cooled investor sentiment on the AI trade.

At 4:00 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 245 points, or 0.5%, while the S&P 500 index fell 1.1%, and the NASDAQ Composite slipped 1.7%.

Broadcom falls on margin concerns

Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) fell sharply after the AI server chips maker said its high-margin, non-AI business was set for a muted current quarter. The company also signaled that a major data center deal with OpenAI will not begin yielding returns until at least 2027.

Broadcom beat expectations for its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings, and also forecast above-consensus revenue for the current quarter. Additionally, the company flagged an AI order backlog of $73 billion over the next 18 months.

Some analysts also raised questions over Broadcom’s biggest customers sourcing AI data center chips on their own– a move the company said at least two clients were considering.

The souring sentiment in Broadcom comes a day tech after a downbeat financial forecast from cloud-computing giant Oracle raised concerns over the potential for over-extended valuations.

Other chipmakers fell in tandem, with Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MU). Lam Research Corp (NASDAQ:LRCX), Marvell Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MRVL), Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD), and NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) down.

Elsewhere, Costco (NASDAQ:COST) beat Wall Street estimates for first-quarter revenue on Thursday, on the back of resilient demand from consumers across income groups amid rising economic uncertainty.

Lululemon Athletica (F:33L) shares soared following the athleisure group’s announcement of the departure of CEO Calvin McDonald and a heightened full-year profit forecast.

Fed dovish stance to boosts, but valuations remain a concern

With investors still pricing in at least 50 bps of monetary easing next year on expectations that U.S. President Donald Trump’s appointee to the Fed Chair will likely be a policy dove, BCA Research expects 2026 to be a constructive year for equities.

In a new outlook, the firm says “monetary easing, fiscal support, GenAI-related capex, and strong earnings growth are unequivocally positive” for stocks, but stresses that “valuations are extended,” and concerns about a bubble are “overstated.”

BCA Research forecasts the S&P 500 will end next year between 7,200 and 7,500, implying “only 5–10%” returns.

Goldman Sachs also takes a positive view of the U.S. equity market moving into 2026.

"Beyond the macro drivers, the profitability of the largest stocks will continue to be a key driver of S&P 500 earnings growth," they argued, adding that returns from the seven largest stocks in the index -- Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Broadcom, and Meta (NASDAQ:META) -- account for roughly a quarter of its total earnings.

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Peter Nurse, Ambar Warrick contributed to this article