12:17 PM EDT, 04/01/2025 (MT Newswires) -- The Toronto Stock Exchange, which opened lower on Tuesday, is now up 127 points at midday with most sectors higher.

Info tech and utilities, up 1.3% and 1%, respectively, are the biggest gainers. Telecoms, down 1.2%, is the biggest decliner.

Market focus is on President Trump, who will unveil his tariff plans at 3 pm ET on Wednesday at the White House Rose Garden. Market participants have been digesting a report earlier today from the Washington Post, that said: "White House aides have drafted a proposal to impose tariffs of around 20% on at least most imports to the United States, three people familiar with the matter said, as President Donald Trump pushes for the most aggressive overhaul of the global economic system in decades."

Rosenberg Research in today's 'Early Morning With Dave' note said tariffs don't lower prices: It noted some estimates from reputable sources fly in the face of Peter Navarro's opinion ("not analysis") that the Trump tariffs will raise US$600 billion annually and will lead to lower prices. Rosenberg Research said Navarro should explain why it was that in Trump 1.0, his tariffs were small and targeted, but where he raised them, such as on washing machines, domestic prices soared +12%. In that first term, prices of tariffed goods in the PCE deflator rose at twice the pace of non-tariffed items, the research added.

Scotiabank asked which Trump should markets believe? According to Scotia, "volatile" talk from Trump and his advisers dialed back some of the tariff rhetoric last evening into this morning after Trump's aggressive remarks on Sunday when he threatened high universal tariffs. Trump said we could see tariffs "maybe tomorrow night or probably Wednesday," so be on guard this evening and throughout today's rumour mill. He also said tariffs will be reciprocal but "we're going to be very nice, relatively speaking, we're going to be very kind."

This morning, Scotia noted, there was a Reuters piece saying that pharma tariffs are unlikely to be included tomorrow. "That's among the most ridiculous tariffs to begin with." Scotia noted Trump also said he would reverse pollution curbs on autos by five years back to 2020 standards. "Somehow dirtier air is a positive".

Meanwhile, National Bank published a 'Technical Analysis" last night in which it noted the S&P/TSX chart "while remaining in a rising trend is seeing technical deterioration that is leading to a challenge of that uptrend". According to National Bank, rising trend conditions hit resistance around 25,875 in late 2024 and early 2025 and turned back. It noted a break of its intermediate term rising trend line and 50-day in early March was an initial red flag. Key support at 24,200 was tested and produced a failing rebound. National Bank said support at 24,200 now becomes critical as a break of this level also takes out a longer term trend line and its 200-day as well as completing a top. Breaking this top points to further weakness down to 22,000 to 22,500, the bank added.

National Bank also noted an extended period of relative under-performance from the S&P/TSX to the DJI has reversed as the S&P/TSX/DJI ratio chart broke out of a one year base and traded to a new 15-month high. The strong performance of gold stocks and the lighter exposure to technology supports an extended period of S&P/TSX relative out-performance to the DJI, the bank said.