04:24 PM EDT, 03/24/2026 (MT Newswires) -- The Toronto Stock Exchange was up for a second session Tuesday, buoyed by a rebound in oil prices, but even still Rosenberg Research became the second entity in as many days to rebalance its model portfolio away from equities.

The resources-heavy S&P/TSX Composite Index closed up 57.78 points to 31,941.59, adding to the near 566 points gained Monday when it returned to being positive for the year to date after bigl losses last week.

West Texas Intermediate oil closed higher Tuesday, rebounding from a day-prior 10% drop as the U.S.-Israel war on Iran continues even as U.S. President Trump said talks with Iran are underway, a claim Iran denied.

WTI crude oil for May delivery closed up US$4.22 to settle at US$92.35 per barrel, while May Brent oil was last seen up US$4.67 to US$104.61.

Gold traded lower for a fifth-straight session by midafternoon Tuesday as the metal sheds its safe-haven status with the war on Iran threatening higher inflation and rising interest rates. Gold for April delivery was down US$9.50 to US$4,430.00 per ounce.

Rosenberg Research in a 'Model Portfolio Update' said after its recent move to de-risk the Rosie Model Portfolio by trimming several equity and duration exposures, it decided to redeploy cash into the short end of the U.S. and Canadian yield curves, where markets appear to be pricing in excessive rate hike expectations. In the view of Rosenberg Research, those expectations are "misguided" and "reflect an overreaction in bond markets to oil-price volatility".

Rosenberg Research said it is taking this opportunity to park cash in two-year U.S. and Canadian government bonds. "We expect yields to compress once this quarter's economic data begin to arrive and rate hike expectations adjust to a weaker growth outlook, driven by tighter financial conditions and geopolitical uncertainty on top of an already weakening growth trend in both the U.S. and Canada."

It added: "This is a tactical trade aimed at increasing exposure to highly liquid bond positions that appear obviously dislocated from the macro outlook because of market volatility."

This comes a day after National Bank of Canada said it is recalibrating its asset mix this month by "fully unwinding last month's risk addition", moving the exposure added to Europe and emerging markets back into cash. The escalation in the Iran war has materially increased downside risks to global growth and, in the IEA's words, is creating the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market, the bank noted. "History offers little comfort here: major oil shocks have typically coincided with S&P 500 bear markets, even if oil alone was not the sole cause," it added, noting the recent surge in oil prices was reviving "unwelcome memories" of the 2022 bear market for equity investors.