12:14 PM EST, 12/18/2024 (MT Newswires) -- The Toronto Stock Exchange is down 77 points in a broad decline, with telecoms (-1%) and miners (-0.6%), posting the biggest losses.

Industrials is the sole gainer, up 0.6% .

The TSX's losses follows four straight days of losses amid weak commodity prices and political turmoil in Canada as the nation faces a potential tariffs war with the United States.

Oil traded higher early on Wednesday after a report showed U.S. oil inventories fell by more than expected last week, while a third straight cut to U.S. interest rates from the Federal Reserve is awaited.

Gold held steady ahead of an expected cut to U.S. interest rates coming later in the day when the Federal Reserve's policy committee ends its two-day meeting.

But natural gas prices rose for a second day even as long-term forecast see milder than seasonal temperatures for most states extending into early January.

BMO Economics noted the market moves come ahead of today's Fed policy pronouncements. We get the Fed's statement and Summary of Economic Projections (SEP) at 2pm ET, followed by Chair Powell's press conference. BMO expects the FOMC to reduce policy rates by 25 bps, lowering the target range for the federal funds rate to 4.25%-to-4.50%. In the presser, BMO will look for Chair Powell to signal that there are more cuts in store for 2025, but not at the same cadence as this year. The latter should also be evident in the SEP, it added.

BMO also noted this will be the second press conference since the election, but the first one since the notion of 25% tariffs on all imports from Canada and Mexico and an added 10% on the ones from China was introduced. According to BMO, Chair Powell will likely take the stand that these are still not official policies that should be considered during the policy formation process. But BMO reckons he'll take the occasion to emphasize that uncertainty surrounding the inflation and other economic forecasts is mounting. "Again," BMO said, "this would be consistent with a slightly more cautious stance next year."

Scotiabank noted there is nothing calendar-based to consider in Canada but it expects "ongoing intense speculation" around a potential cabinet shuffle, whether PM Trudeau will stay on, and the exact order of operations behind the Globe and Mail story mid-day yesterday about how Trudeau demoted former Finance Minister Freeland to appoint former Bank of Canada Governor Carney -- "which either jumped the gun on Trudeau's part or Carney changed his mind" as the Fin Min job went instead to Dominic LeBlanc. "Or," Scotiabank added, "the sources are incorrect with a whole lot of political finger pointing going on which is also possible in the small gossipy world of Ottawa."

In terms of data that did come out, the Teranet-National Bank House Price Index showed Canada home prices accelerated in November. The composite index rose by 0.6% in November, the fifth consecutive monthly increase and a larger rise than the previous month's 0.4%. As a result, prices have grown by a cumulative 2.2% since the Bank of Canada's first rate cut in June, but still remain 1.0% below their April 2022 peak.