By Ketki Saxena
Investing.com -- At 1:00 p.m in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite Index was at 19,364.13 points, points, up 0.92% in the day’s trading, as equities rebounded from last week’s bloodbath.
With markets now having priced in aggressive rate hikes by the Fed and accepted the growing risk of recession, investors await further guidance on monetary policy from Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, as he speaks to the Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday and Thursday this week.
The case for a 75 basis point hike from the Bank of Canada was also strengthened further to today’s retail sales data, which indicated consumer resilience to rising rates, a cooling economy, and still high-inflation. Canadian investors will also be watching for domestic CPI data due tomorrow. Inflation is expected to rise above the last reading of 6.8%, a 30-year high.
All TSX sectors barring telecom, which saw profit-taking following yesterday’s surge after the announcement of a Rogers-Quebecor deal, were in the green at midday in a broadbased rebound.
The commodity-heavy Canadian index was most lifted by gains in the heavyweight energy and materials sector, and dip buying in the sizably weighted tech sector.
The energy subindex was supported by gains in crude as worries of tight supply from OPEC+ and the U.S. in the context of the Russian-oil embargo outweighed concerns of slowing economic growth. Materials meanwhile were supported by broad-based gains in metals including silver and copper, despite a pullback in gold affected by rising U.S. yields.
Energy stocks were the biggest gainers on the TSX at midday, including Energy Fuels Inc (TSX:EFR) (+7.31%), Precision Drilling Corporation (TSX:PD) (+6.77%), MEG Energy Corp (TSX:MEG)(+6.45%), Vermilion Energy Inc . (TSX:VET) (+5.97%). Aurora Cannabis (TSX:ACB) (+5.81%) was also a top gainer today.
The biggest losers on the TSX today included Bombardier (TSX:BBDb) (-5.72%), Bausch Health (TSX:BHC) (-3.58%), Yamana Gold (TSX:YRI) (-2.23%), OceanaGold (TSX:OGC) (-2.13%), and Rogers Communications Inc (TSX:RCIa) (-1.87%).