Canada’s stocks

benchmark briefly spiked higher Friday morning after the United States Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s

global tariffs

.

The

S&P/TSX Composite Index

swung Friday after climbing as much as 0.5 per cent immediately after the tariff ruling. It was up 0.2 per cent as of 10:58 a.m.

in Toronto

. Information technology stocks led the index higher, boosted by the performance of Shopify Inc. and Constellation Software Inc. The index is heading for its third-straight record close and has climbed 6.1 per cent so far this year.

Gains Friday were counterbalanced by weakness in gold stocks. Eight of the 10 biggest decliners in the index were gold mining companies, including Eldorado Gold Corp. and Barrick Mining Corp.

Canada sends many of its exports to the U.S. However, given that the vast majority are protected by the

Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement

(CUSMA),

tariffs weren’t an issue

for most Canadian publicly traded companies, said Laura Lau, chief investment officer at Brompton Funds.

She called the immediate response to the decision a knee-jerk reaction, but said investors would be focused on the CUSMA renegotiation, which is “actually a bigger deal for us.”

Philip Petursson, chief investment strategist with IG Wealth Management, said many Canadian companies have thus far been somewhat insulated from tariff effects. The ruling “is a good thing, but it’s not necessarily a great thing that’s going to change the profitability of companies listed on the TSX,” he said, observing that the Trump administration has

other tools available to impose tariffs

.

Earlier Friday, retail sales data were stronger than expected, while a reading on industrial product and raw materials prices were hotter than predicted, raising the prospect of a rate hike.

Bloomberg.com

  • The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Trump’s tariffs. What comes next?
  • U.S. tariffs against Canada keep falling, but is that just the quiet before the CUSMA storm?