Commodity stocks took a beating on Thursday, dragging the TSX into the red. Mining and oil companies were some of the biggest losers and their performance is often tied to economic growth, something people have become nervous about after the tariff threats from President-elect Donald Trump.
Global experts who gathered at the 9th China Global Think Tank Innovation Forum in Beijing this week warned tariffs would harm global livelihood and economic growth but won’t help their own problems.
There is some good news on the commodity front. The International Energy Agency said the world oil market will be comfortably supplied next year, even in the face of higher-than-expected demand forecast and extended oil supply cuts.
Even though Canada’s main stock index dropped to its lowest point all month, it is still more than 500 points higher than it was on this day one month ago.
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South of the border, markets retreated as traders took stock of the latest producer price index reading, which beat expectations. November’s producer price index, which tracks wholesale prices, increased 0.4 per cent last month, twice what was expected from economists who were polled by Dow Jones. Now the belief is that the Federal Reserve will exercise another rate cut at next week’s policy meeting.
| TSX | 25,410.71 | -246.99 |  |
| TSXV | 611.88 | -4.72 | |
| CSE | 128.98 | -2.49 | |
| DJIA | 43,914.12 | -234.44 | |
| NASDAQ | 19,902.84 | -132.05 | |
| S&P 500 | 6,051.25 | -32.94 | |
The Canadian dollar traded for 70.37 cents US compared to 70.61 cents US on Wednesday.
US crude futures traded $0.05 lower at US$70.24 a barrel, but the Brent contract rose $0.07 to US$73.59 a barrel.
The price of gold was down US$38.18 to US$2,682.80.
In world markets, the Nikkei was up 476.91 points to 39,849.14, the Hang Seng was up 242.00 points to 20,397.05, the FTSE was up 10.14 points to 8,311.76, and the DAX was up 27.11 points to 20,426.27.
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(Top image generated with AI.)