The S&P/TSX Composite climbed roughly 0.3% above the 26,020 level on Tuesday—eyeing a fresh record—as investors returned from the Victoria Day holiday to weigh Canada’s April CPI and the fallout from Moody’s May 16 downgrade of US sovereign debt to Aa1.
Headline inflation eased to 1.7% year-on-year, the softest in seven months, yet the Bank of Canada’s trimmed-mean core CPI unexpectedly accelerated to 3.1%, its highest in thirteen months, underscoring entrenched price pressures and diminishing odds of near-term rate cuts.
Additionally, high-level talks between VP Vance and PM Carney in Rome, alongside the G7 meeting, revived hopes for US tariff relief, easing a key uncertainty for Canada’s export-reliant resource and industrial firms. In equities, the materials sector, with Agnico Eagle, Wheaton Precious Metals, Barrick Gold, and Franco-Nevada gaining 1.8%–2.9%, benefited from safe-haven flows into gold as US fiscal…
