04:16 PM EST, 01/02/2025 (MT Newswires) -- The Toronto Stock Exchange got the 2025 trading year off to a strong start with the resources heavy index rising 170 points to 24,898.03 on Thursday, buoyed by higher commodity prices and positive sentiment.

Much of that positivity likely stems from the fact that the TSX gained near 18% over 2024. "Last year was a great year for Canadian stock investors," said Morningstar Canada.

For its own part, the Morningstar Canada Index returned roughly 22% in 2024, which follows a solid 12.2% gain in 2023. It also said that means even with the down year in 2022, Canadian stocks have returned a "healthy" 9% per year over the last three years and north of 11% for the past five. "Not bad!"

Among sectors today, Health Care was the biggest gainer on the day, up 2.2%, followed by Energy (+1.6%). Battery Metals and Base Metals were up 0.9% and 1.0% respectively.

Of commodities today, The Wall Street Journal said front month gold futures closed 1.1% higher at US$2,658.90 an ounce, the largest uptick in nearly two weeks, and the highest close in three weeks.

Meanwhile, MarketWatch said oil futures began 2025 on a "positive note" Thursday, boosted by expectations for stronger demand, with hopes that China, the world's largest crude importer, will follow through on pledges to further stimulate growth in the new year. It noted the U.S. government revealed a sixth straight weekly decline in crude supplies Thursday, contributing to oil's price climb -- despite the data also showing significant gains in petroleum-product supplies. Forecasts for much colder weather in many parts of the U.S., meanwhile, also provided support for the energy market, including natural gas, it added.

On U.S. crude, Walt Chancellor, an energy strategist at Macquarie, noted this week the EIA reported draws in commercial crude (-4.2 MM BBL), distillate (-1.7 MM BBL), jet (-0.6 MM BBL), and at Cushing (-0.3 MM BBL) with a build in gasoline (+1.6 MM BBL). All told, he said, the crude balance was "fairly close" to expectations, while products were again "considerably" tighter. Within the crude balance, runs were above Macquarie's expectation (+0.2 MBD), with net imports much higher than expected on a nominal basis (+0.7 MBD). Chancellor noted iimplied dom. supply (prod.+adj.+trans.) was a nominally soft 13.5 MBD (Macquarie modeled about 14.1 MBD), with the trailing 4W avg. falling to 13.8 MBD. "These implied supply figures appear much stronger when adjusted for 3rd party estimated waterborne flows," he added.

Looking ahead to next week's release, Macquarie sees potential for a "healthy" US crude build (+5.0 MM BBL), with runs slightly lower (-0.1 MBD), nominal implied supply bouncing back (+0.7 MBD), net imports higher (+0.6 MBD), and a larger increase in SPR inventory (+0.9 MM BBL) on the week. Macquarie notes potential for volatility in these figures given the incomplete nature of this week's data. Among products, amidst holiday/seasonal effects, Macquarie's preliminary expectations point to large builds in gasoline (+4.0 MM BBL) and distillate (+4.3 MM BBL) with a draw in jet (-0.5 MM BBL).

Among dual listed stocks in the news today, Cameco ( CCJ ) was up 1.6% in Canada despite saying it was informed by its partner Kazatomprom on December 31, 2024 of a suspension in uranium production activity at joint venture Inkai as of January 1, 2025. National Bank noted while the suspension length is uncertain, Kazatomprom expects a resolution in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, BlackBerry (BB.TO, BB) closed up a modest 0.9% but did earlier hit 52 week highs as it announced a divisional name change and relaunch of its QNX brand to "boost recognition" within the automotive and general embedded industries.

Hudbay Minerals ( HBM ) jumped 5.15% as it received an Air Quality Permit for the Copper World project from the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, and appears to have changed its board chair seamlessly.

For its part, Thomson Reuters ( TRI ) , a content and technology company, was up about 0.6% after saying it has acquired cPaperless, doing business as SafeSend, for US$600 million in cash. Separately, Gannett Co. and Reuters also announced an agreement to provide media brands and publishers with an offering that includes ready-to-publish local, regional, state, national and international multimedia news and content. Also, CUBE said Thursday it has closed the acquisition of Thomson Reuters Regulatory Intelligence and Oden businesses.