12:13 PM EST, 11/07/2024 (MT Newswires) -- The Toronto Stock Exchange is up 145 points with miners (+3.6%) and technology (+1.2%), the biggest gainers.

Telecoms (-2%), is the biggest decliner.

Among commodities today, oil prices fell for a second day early on Thursday on higher U.S. inventories and weak demand from China, even as the dollar eased after rising sharply following Donald Trump's re-election to the U.S. presidency.

But gold prices rose as the dollar eased ahead of the end of the two-day meeting of the Federal Reserve's policy committee.

Scotiabank noted the FOMC is widely expected to cut by another 25bps. It will be a statement-only affair, but will be followed by Chair Powell's press conference (at 2:30pmET).

According to Scotia, "the optics of not cutting would be bad on three counts". First, it said, the Fed usually sticks to the current year dot plot when issued late in the year and it had 50bps over November and December together. Second, it said, "whiffing" would be an admission that maybe they feel they shouldn't have gone big on the first cut. Third, it said, "to whiff" right after the US election would raise awkward questions given no policies have been introduced yet. Scotia added: "Powell will avoid questions on potential US policy changes and adopt the wait and see line. That said, an economy in excess aggregate demand does not need fiscal pump priming which will only substitute fiscal easing for monetary easing at the margin and with trade policy risks hanging in the balance."

Meanwhile, Wells Fargo Investment Institute published market commentary that says history shows the S&P 500 Index has tended to rise over time no matter what the control of the White House and Congress happens to be.