Canada's main stock index grew on Monday, after three sessions of declines, as investors took cues from Wall Street and welcomed a pullback in oil prices, even as the war in the Middle East raged on.
The TSX gathered 296.09 points to pause for lunch Monday at 32,839.02
The dollar regained 0.25 cents to 73.18 cents U.S.
Brokerage Jefferies raised its price targets across several Canadian energy companies, including Cenovus, Suncor and Canadian Natural Resources, reflecting improved cash-flow expectations and firmer commodity assumptions.
Shares in Cenovus gained 16 cents to $32.00, while Suncor captured 72 cents to $82.55, and Natural Resources gained four cents to $66.55
Macroeconomic news is plentiful Monday, with housing starts increasing by 0.4% in February with 256,005 units from January's 238,000.
In January, 114,415 new motor vehicles were sold in Canada, a decrease of 5.6% from January 2025. In dollar terms, sales decreased 6.1% in January 2026 compared with one year earlier. Over the same period, sales of new passenger cars fell by 18.2%, while sales of new trucks saw a smaller decline of 3.9%.
The consumer price index registered at rose 1.8% year over year in February, down from an increase of 2.3% in January. On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, the CPI rose 0.1% in February.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange dropped 9.25 points to 1,008.86.
All but one of the 12 TSX subgroups improved, led by information technology, better by 1.9%, financials, richer by 1.7%, and consumer discretionary stocks, up 1.6%.
Only materials shrank, and 0.2% at that.
ON WALLSTREET
Stocks rose on Monday, while oil prices pulled back as Wall Street tried to recover from another losing week, with investors monitoring the latest developments of the Iran war.
The Dow Jones Industrials came off its peaks of the morning, but still gains 389.79 points to 46,957.26
The S&P 500 index recovered 67.72 points, or 1.2%, to 6,709.25.
The NASDAQ grabbed 280.59 points, or 1.3%, to 32,832.02.
Meta shares gained more than 2% on a report — which the company has called “speculative” — that it is planning to lay off more than 20% of its workforce. Additionally, Nvidia shares rose more than 2% ahead of its GTC conference, which begins Monday.
Oil prices rallied last week, with Brent crude settling above $100 per barrel for the first time since 2022. Crude soared as traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping route, has been effectively halted since the war began.
In Monday trading, WTI crude traded 4% lower at just below $95 a barrel. It traded above $100 per barrel overnight. Brent crude fell more than 1% to around $101 a barrel.
President Donald Trump ordered on Friday strikes on Iran military assets located on Kharg Island. While the attack didn’t impact oil infrastructure, Trump said the U.S. would consider hitting those structures if Iran continues to block the Strait.
Trump also told NBC over the weekend that Iran wants to make a deal, but he is not ready yet.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury climbed, lowering yields to 4.24% from Friday’s 4.29%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices slumped $3.22 to $95.49 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices sank $70.40 to $4,991.30 U.S. an ounce.
