12:21 PM EST, 02/24/2025 (MT Newswires) -- The Toronto Stock Exchange is up 78 points at midday, with telecoms (+1%) and miners (+0.7%), leading gains.

Healthcare and info tech are the biggest decliners, down 2.3% and 0.5%, respectively.

Oil prices edged down early on Monday, trading at a two-month low on rising supply amid uncertainty over the global economy as the United States threatens to upend global trade flows with tariffs. Natural gas futures traded sharply lower, dropping 6% as forecasts see a mild start to March.

But gold traded at yet another record high early on Monday on safe-haven demand amid uncertainty over the health of the global economy as tariff threats from the U.S. continue to create uncertainty.

Early equity gains may have reflected some hopes that Mexico, and Canada, could avoid a tariffs war with the United States. A Macquarie strategist said in a note he had got more constructive on the Mexican peso amid negotiations over US-Mexico-Canada tariffs. Thierry Wizman, Global FX & Rates Strategist at Macquarie, noted reports suggesting that Mexico will skirt US import tariffs if it imposes its own tariffs on China. That's to help the US de-risk from China by excluding China's products and capital from U.S. supply chains. With the contours of an agreement coming into place, we're getting a bit more constructive on the MXN, Wizman said.

But Rosenberg Research in its 'Early Morning With Dave' note, noted the technical picture in equities is eroding fast.

As for equities, the research said, much technical damage has been done just days after the S&P 500 hit a fractional new high earlier last week. It noted the S&P 500 index fell 1.7% on Friday to test its 50-day trendline after hitting a record high on Wednesday. The index is now just 0.3% higher since Inauguration Day in a vivid sign that the 'Trump Bump' is over. The Dow also plunged 1.7% -- losing 748 points -- in its worst session of the year and fell below its 50-day moving average. It wasn't better for the other indexes either. The Nasdaq Composite fared the worst among the major indexes -- off -2.2% to close the week and knifing below its 50-day moving trendline as well. The Tech-heavy index has now practically lost all of the year to date gain, up just 1.1%.

The research added: "The stock market is sending a slow-growth macro message as the only sectors showing a pulse these days are the defensive ones. Yet again, in a huge down day on Friday for the major averages, only Consumer Staples notched a gain among the S&P 500's eleven sectors. The economic, and even the inflation-centric sectors are taking it on the chin. The internals are weak, with volume on the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq higher to end the week and decliners outnumbered advancers on both the major exchanges by around 3-to-1."