12:19 PM EST, 12/17/2024 (MT Newswires) -- The Toronto Stock Exchange is down 62 points at midday, with energy (-1.4%) and telecoms (-1.5%) the biggest decliners.

Technology and healthcare are the sole gainers, up 0.8% and 0.23%, respectively.

Oil prices fell for a second day on Tuesday as weak demand from China continues to keep the price rangebound.

Gold prices weakened for a fourth-straight session as the dollar steadied ahead of Wednesday's interest-rate decision from the Federal Reserve's policy committee.

Natural gas traded down for a third-straight day as forecasts continue to expect a mild end to December, keeping heating demand light.

Markets weren't helped either by the release of inflation data that de-accelerated slightly in November. But CIBC pointed out that is ahead of what will be a volatile period for CPI readings thanks to the temporary reduction in GST on certain items.

CIBC also noted headline CPI was flat on the month and eased to 1.9% year over year, with both of those readings coming in a tick below consensus expectations. But it will be difficult for policymakers to determine the underlying trend in inflation over the next few months, with December figures weakened by the mid-month start of a GST holiday on certain goods/services. CIBC continues to forecast a 25bp cut from the Bank at the January meeting.

For its part RBC expects a softening economy (falling per-capita GDP and rising unemployment) will keep pressing down on domestic price pressures going forward. It noted the BoC cut the overnight rate by 50 bps as expected last week but signalled clearly that further reductions would be more gradual. That's in line with RBC's outlook, that expects consecutive smaller 25 basis point cuts to the overnight rate down to 2% (below the BoC's 2.25% to 3.25% estimated neutral range) by July 2025.

Meanwhile, CIBC noted the American consumer started the holiday shopping season on a strong note largely as expected. Headline retail sales rose by 0.7% m/m compared to expectations of 0.6%. October headline retail sales were revised up by one notch. The control group of retail sales, which feeds into non-auto core goods consumption in GDP, rose by 0.4% as expected.

Today's report won't sway the FOMC's deliberations for December. CIBC expects another quarter point cut tomorrow, but added "with an economy that isn't screaming out for a lot of rate relief, Powell will provide a bit more fuzzy forward guidance tomorrow and open the door to some skips in 2025."