Equities in Canada’s largest centre chugged higher as Tuesday morning became afternoon, after U.S. President Donald Trump's hints that the Middle East conflict could end soon sent gold prices and mining shares up even as plunging crude oil rates weighed the energy sector down.
The TSX popped 239.19 points by midday Tuesday at 33,429.51.
Traders will be watching U.S. inflation data and Canada's jobs report due later this week for signals on the monetary policy outlook.
The timing comes as the Bank of Canada faces mounting geopolitical and supply side risks ahead of its March 18 policy decision.
The technology index fell, dragged down by a fall in supply chain technology provider Descartes Systems Group, which regressed $2.55, or 2.6%, to $95.63.
The industrials sector fell with Thomson Reuters declining $9.34, or 6.2%, to $142.05.
Air Canada was down 26 cents, or 1.5%, to $17.52, after Scotiabank downgraded the stock to "sector perform" from "sector outperform".
Canadian investment firm Fairfax Financial rose $36.06, or 1.6%, to $2,278.25, after agreeing to a $1.91-billion sale of part of its stake in Poseidon Corp.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange marched ahead 17.97 points, or 1.7%, to 1,081.40.
Eight of the 12 TSX subgroups were higher by noon, with materials surging 2.7%, gold brighter 2.5%, and financials growing 1.3%.
The four laggards were weighed most by information technology, down 0.8%, industrials slipping 0.6%, and real-estate, off 0.3%.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks rose on Tuesday in choppy trading, building on the comeback from the previous session, as oil prices pulled back and traders kept an eye on the Iran war.
The Dow Jones Industrials surged 242.77 points by noon EDT Tuesday to 47,983.53.
The much-broader index improved 25.51 points to 6,821.50.
The NASDAQ recovered 136.75 points to 22,832.70.
The International Energy Agency said it would meet later on Tuesday to discuss a release of oil stockpiles. The members will “assess the current security of supply and market conditions to inform a subsequent decision on whether to make emergency stocks… available to the market,” IEA chief Fatih Birol said.
President Donald Trump on Monday evening said, “We’re achieving major strides toward completing our military objective,” reinforcing earlier comments that the military campaign could soon end. Speaking at a press conference at his golf club near Miami, Trump also said, “We are also focused on keeping energy and oil flowing to the world.”
On Tuesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, “Today will be our most intense day of strikes inside Iran.” He also said that Iran is “badly losing.”
Meanwhile, the speaker of Iran’s parliament, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, wrote in a post on X that the Middle Eastern country is not looking for a ceasefire, according to a translation.
Energy ministers from the Group of Seven nations — specifically Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the U.S. — were planning to meet virtually on Tuesday morning to discuss a potential release of strategic oil reserves.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury gained ground, lowering yields to Monday’s 4.11%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices wavered $11.43 to $83.34 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices recovered $110.10 to $5,233.80 U.S. an ounce.
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