04:35 PM EDT, 10/01/2025 (MT Newswires) -- The Toronto Stock Exchange posted it's third-straight record close on Wednesday, a first such string of records since mid-September, boosted by gold's rise to a record high, which led to Base Metals being among leading sectors, most of which were higher.

With the Energy sector one of only a few losers on the day, down a modest 0.15%, Base Metals helped push the resource-heavy S&P/TSX Composite Index up 84.86 points. or 0.3%, to 30,107.67. Health Care was the biggest gainer, up near 3%.

Still, it was the Energy sector that was very much in the news late Wednesday afternoon as Alberta's government, acting as proponent, said it will lead a technical advisory group of companies with indigenous participants to advance a West Coast pipeline application

Among commodities, gold had traded at a fresh record late midafternoon Wednesday as the partial shutdown of the U.S. government today prompted further safe-haven buying, while a report showed the U.S. private sector shed jobs last month, showing a slowing economy and boosting the outlook for interest-rate cuts. Gold for December delivery was up $17.00 to US$3,890.20 per ounce.

However, likely limiting overall market gains, West Texas Intermediate oil closed lower for a third day following a report saying OPEC+ is mulling an outsized production increase in November, while U.S. inventories rose more than expected last week. WTI crude oil for November delivery closed down $0.59 to settle at US$61.78 per barrel, while December Brent crude was last seen down $0.71 to US$65.32.

Still on commodity related issues, Douglas Porter, Chief Economist at BMO Capital Markets, noted that over the past year, U.S. electricity prices have bolted higher by 6.2%. "Amazingly," he said, "that is actually a tad cooler than the supercharged 6.5% average annual increase over the past five years". According to Porter, there's no mystery as to what's going on here as the "voracious appetite" for power from data centers has "sent once-sleepy electricity demand skyward". Given electricity's near-2.5% weight in the CPI, the price surge has alone contributed 0.15 ppt to overall inflation, or about 0.1 ppt more than what would be 'normal' price increases in the sector, he Porter added.

Porter noted it's currently "a more moderate picture" in Canada, both because of "somewhat" less frothy demand and more regulated prices. In fact, he said, while rising 3.2% on average in the past five years, half the U.S. pace-electricity costs are up just 1.4% in the past year.

On the economics front, Tiago Figueiredo, a Desjardins macro strategist, said, after reading the Bank of Canada's latest 'Summary of Deliberations', there were several developments since the July Monetary Policy Report that pushed the BoC to resume an interest rate easing cycle in September, even as there were some arguments in favor of keeping policy unchanged, while Governing Council members didn't offer any clues about the future path.

According to Figueiredo, a softening labor market, particularly in parts of the economy that were not as trade exposed "startled" the Governing Council. He noted: given that survey data pointed to subdued hiring intentions, policymakers were worried that ongoing "uncertainty about U.S. trade policy could lead to further labour market weakness across the economy". And outside of the labor market, the latest inflation data also suggested that, one, upward momentum in core inflation had dissipated, and two, the federal government's decision to remove most retaliatory tariffs meant less upward pressure on prices going forward. While members agreed that upside risks to price growth had diminished, they had not gone away, Figueiredo noted.

The Governing Council viewed the strong consumption growth in the second quarter as a potential indicator of stronger economic momentum going forward, Figueiredo said, before adding they pointed to past rate cuts as potential drivers of that strength and reiterated that past rate cuts were still spreading through the economy.

But, Figueiredo said, the Governing Council noted that easing trade uncertainty would likely mean policymakers would present a baseline projection at the October MPR. Governing Council emphasized that they would continue to look over a shorter horizon than usual. "Today's release doesn't change the story for us and we continue to see the balance of risks skewed towards further easing. As such, we anticipate that policymakers will lower the overnight rate to a trough of 2.00%," he added.