04:18 PM EDT, 08/20/2025 (MT Newswires) -- The Toronto Stock Exchange closed higher again on Wednesday, as the up and down nature of recent trading continues amid a dearth of major market moving catalysts over the late summer period.

Buoyed by higher commodity prices, the S&P/TSX Composite Index closed up 54.88 points to 27,878.76, but it lost more than 20 points over the final minutes of Wednesday's session, leaving the index more than 100 points off the record close of 27,993.43 struck a week ago.

Sectors were mixed, with the Battery Metals Index down near 3% and Health Care down near 1.3%. Energy was up about 0.7%.

Of commodities, gold prices were higher late afternoon Wednesday, moving higher following four losing sessions as the dollar and yields fell with the market awaiting the Friday start of the Federal Reserve's annual Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium in Wyoming. Gold for December delivery was last seen up $32.90 to US$3.391.60 per ounce.

In relation to Jackson Hole, the minutes for the last meeting of the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) on July 29-30 were released Wednesday afternoon and according to BMO Economics they "emphasized divergent views about the balance of risks to the economic outlook and, in turn, how soon the Fed should consider cutting policy rates."

BMO said: "Utilizing an August 20 lens instead of a July 30 one, the Minutes read less hawkishly than they otherwise would. And it's probably going to be up to Chair Powell in his Friday speech at the Jackson Hole confab to indicate how the balance of risks might have altered over the past three weeks. We doubt it's enough for an outright rate cut tilt on the scale, so Powell's messaging is probably going to be subtle."

Also, West Texas Intermediate crude oil closed higher as a report showed a larger than expected draw on U.S. oil inventories last week, while talks over ending Russia's war on Ukraine continue. WTI oil closed up $0.86 to settle at US$63.21 per barrel, while October Brent crude was up $1.03 to US$66.82 per barrel.

In relation to both equities and oil, Rosenberg Research has just made a minor change to the Rosie Macro Fund, shifting out of the Hamilton Utilities Yield Maximizer ETF ( UMXIF ) and swapping it for the Global X Equal Weight Canadian Pipelines ETF (PPLN).

"Our intent all along was to capture exposure to what we see as a bona fide growth and yield play in Canadian pipelines (benefiting from a renewed national interest in energy infrastructure investment). The limited availability of pureplay Canadian pipeline ETFs made UMAX one of the only attractive options at the time, but, with PPLN now filling that gap in the market (while offering an attractive yield of 5%+ to boot), this is no longer the case, and we can fully align our original investment thesis via this ETF (pipelines only, with no diluted energy exposure)," Rosenberg noted.