04:30 PM EST, 01/03/2025 (MT Newswires) -- The Toronto Stock Exchange maintained a winning start to 2025 on Friday, rising for a third-straight session on rising commodity prices.

The S&P/TSX Composite Index closed up 175.51 points to close at 25,073.54. Among the sectors, the biggest gainers were the Battery Metals Index, up 3.5%, and Telecoms, up 1.3%. Energy was up 0.6%, but Base Metals eased by 0.15%.

The resources heavy index likely benefitted from some bullish commentary around commodities, even if prices were mixed today, as reflected in the sectors.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil rose for a fifth-straight session after China introduced additional economic stimulus measures and reiterated its 5% growth target and U.S. inventories fell. WTI crude for February delivery closed up US$0.83 to settle at US$73.96 per barrel, while March Brent crude was last seen up US$0.55 to US$76.48.

But gold traded lower on Friday, even as the dollar fell off the highest in more than two years and treasury yields eased. Gold for February delivery was last seen down US$13.60 to US$2,655.40 per ounce.

Still, Ned Davis Research Commodity Strategist Matt Bauer noted the model composite in December moved to its most bullish monthly reading since May 31, 2004. "All but two of the model's technical indicators are bullish and there are no bearish sentiment, fundamental, or macro indicators," Bauer said, in upgrading commodities from neutral to bullish.

Bauer added: "Breadth has improved with more than 50% of commodities trading above their 126-day average. Global economic surprises momentum continues to the downside, but global recession risk is low and there is reason to believe the USD's surge may be running out of steam....We believe that tips the weight of the evidence in favor of the bulls enough to upgrade our view to bullish. Risks to our view include lower than expected global growth and continued USD strength."

On energy trends, Bauer noted crude oil, natural gas and heating oil were three of the top five best performing commodities in December. It was the first time all three had positive monthly returns since June. Capital discipline from the energy sector, continued tension in the Middle East, the end of Russia's gas flow to Europe, OPEC+'s withheld supply and the prospect of more serious enforcement of sanctions on Iranian and Venezuelan crude all look to support energy commodities to start the year, he said.

Elsewhere, Rosenberg Research Friday afternoon took a look ahead at commodities. It said a review of the monthly Coppock Curve for the 16 commodities indicates that long-term momentum is currently most robust for natural gas, corn and coffee, and is weakest for cotton, cocoa and copper. Momentum for gold and oil is "solidly" in the middle of the pack. "Overall, however, the oscillator is positioned to remain near its neutral zero line for most commodities, which implies that we should be able give the S&P GSCI index the benefit of the doubt during much of 2025," the research added.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg has cited Pierre Poilievre, the Conservative Party leader who is the front-runner to beat Prime Minister Trudeau's Liberal party in the next Canadian federal election due some time this year, as saying he could increase Canada's exports to the US and strike a "great deal" with President-elect Trump, who has among other things threatened 25% tariffs, and vented that the US is getting ripped off by its northern neighbor because of a trade deficit.

Poilievre, Bloomberg noted, sketched out an elevator pitch to the US president-elect during an interview with right-wing Canadian influencer Jordan Peterson posted online Thursday. If elected, Poilievre said he plans to speed up approvals to build oil refineries, liquefied natural gas plants, nuclear facilities and hydro power. Canada has the ability to grow its electricity surplus with the United States, helping to run the data centers that are essential to its booming artificial intelligence sector, he added.

Among individual stocks today, Rogers Communications (RCI-B.TO) was higher even after saying it expects annual consolidated service revenue growth of just over 7% for the full year 2024, below its guidance range of 8%-10% issued last February. In a statement it said the decline is driven by weakness in media revenue during the fourth quarter. All other guidance items remain unchanged, the statement added.

National Bank maintained an outperform rating and target of $54 on Rogers. In keeping the Rogers Q4 result due out Jan. 30 in mind, the bank's analyst Adam Shine said due to weaker ad trends (as called out in Friday's release), he decreased his Media revenues forecast by $42 million, while raising EBITDA by $12 million on "efficiencies".