12:10 PM EDT, 05/02/2025 (MT Newswires) -- The Toronto Stock Exchange is up 165 points at midday with most sectors higher.

The biggest gainers are miners (+2%) and industrials (+1.7%), followed by healthcare, up 1%.

Telecoms and utilities are the sole decliners, down 0.7% and 0.3%, respectively.

Gold prices rose early on Friday following two days of losses as the dollar fell after a better-than-expected U.S. jobs report pushes investors to add risk. But oil prices weakened despite signs of cooling trade tensions between the United States and China as supply is on the rise, with OPEC+ adding new barrels to the market as it winds down 2.2-million barrels per day of voluntary production cuts.

The gains also come despite some bad news on the economic front in Canada. The union representing auto workers at the General Motors plant in Oshawa, Ont. says the company is cutting its third shift this fall, citing U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs, BNN TV reported. It cited Unifor, which represents about 3,000 employees at the Oshawa facility, saying the shift reduction is "reckless" and that the move will "ripple through" the auto parts supplier network. Local 222 president Jeff Gray said the move will impact hundreds of jobs.

On the positive side, Rosenberg Research noted Beijing is "responding to the U.S. blinking by blinking back," seemingly willing now to evaluate the trade overtures coming out of the Trump administration. The research also noted comments from Japan's chief trade negotiator Ryosei Akazawa that negotiations are expected to begin heating up in mid-May.

Derek Holt, Vice-President & Head of Capital Markets Economics at Scotiabank, in his morning note said the question that needs to be asked is how likely it is that Trump removes all tariffs before China agrees to talks? "Not very in my opinion. It's impossible to tell what is actually going on behind the scenes on both sides given all the face-saving activity, but I'm inclined to treat this skeptically."

Holt also noted a series of headlines out of Japan this morning are applying a dose of reality to U.S. "propaganda" on the state of trade talks with the nation. Prime Minister Ishiba said U.S. auto tariffs are "absolutely unacceptable" and that the country won't rush into decisions, according to a Kyodo newspaper quoting anonymous Japanese government officials who stated the U.S. is unwilling to grant Japan exemptions on auto and steel tariffs and the 10% reciprocal tariffs that apply against everything. Holt also noted Fin Min Kato said earlier this morning that "It does exist as a card" in reference to weaponizing Japan's holdings of US Treasuries.

"All of this indicates that there is no real progress on trade talks with Japan despite the US administration's efforts to make it sound like a deal with Japan could come before others and perhaps soon," Holt added.