Canada’s main stock index finished in negative territory while tech stocks weighed on U.S. markets.
Sadiq Adatia, chief investment officer at BMO Global Asset Management, said markets were digesting a number of factors, including valuations for AI stocks, the recent SpaceX initial public offering, debt levels and more.
“All of that is spooking the markets a little bit at the moment,” he said.
“Plus, the fact that even though we’ve got the U.S.-Iran situation in better shape, I think a lot of it was already priced into the market, and now we’re almost getting a ‘OK, well it’s done now so what else is next.’”
The S&P/TSX composite index was down 74.80 points at 34,927.38.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 45.87 points at 51,666.84. The S&P 500 index was down 107.33 points at 7,365.46, while the Nasdaq composite was down 579.56 points at 25,587.04.
On Tuesday, more stocks gained ground within the S&P 500 than fell, but tech companies overpowered gains elsewhere.
Micron Technology slumped 13.2 per cent and Nvidia fell 4.1 per cent. Samsung Electronics slumped 12.3 per cent in South Korea.
Sébastien Mc Mahon, chief economist at iA Financial Group, said in a statement that the selloff in tech stocks appeared to be more of a “short-term scare driven by profit taking and overextended short-term positions than anything structural.”
“We’re not changing our bullish view on AI and tech more broadly, but we’ll have to get accustomed to such positive and negative bouts of volatility. Especially as we enter the summer months, where institutional liquidity dries up and jittery retail flows take over,” he said.
The growing likelihood of interest rate hikes in the U.S. later this year has helped deflate the massive run-up in AI-related stocks in recent days as traders worry that the higher rates could hamper economic growth.
Many technology companies have been spending heavily on AI. The potential for higher interest rates can stifle future spending and hurt prices for investments. The Federal Reserve has signalled that it could raise rates at least once before the end of the year.
Meanwhile, oil prices have eased amid negotiations between the U.S. and Iran to end their war. The September delivery price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, fell 0.9 per cent to settle at US$76.80. The August crude oil contract was down 65 cents US at US$73.21 per barrel.
In the Canadian stock market, losses in the basic materials sector weighed on the overall index. The August gold contract was down US$53.30 at US$4,149.40 an ounce.
Separately, shares of Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. rose 11.68 per cent following its fourth-quarter results that were reported after markets closed on Monday. The company managed to grow its profit and revenue even as the Middle East war choked the global flow of fuel.
“They’re winning off gas pumps at Circle K and others, but that whole benefit is coming off the fact of the margins they’re probably getting on oil ... the price of oil running up, benefiting off that potentially,” Adatia said.
“It’s still been a win because you haven’t seen as much of a consumer slowdown in their purchases of gas along the way.”
The Canadian dollar traded for 70.42 cents US compared with 70.61 cents US on Monday.
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Daniel Johnson, The Canadian Press
With files from The Associated Press
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 23, 2026.
