12:15 PM EST, 03/07/2025 (MT Newswires) -- The Toronto Stock Exchange is down 125 points at midday, with miners (-3%) and info tech (-2%), the biggest decliners.

Telecom (+2%) and energy (+1.8%) are the biggest gainers.

Oil prices rose following reports Russia's oil minister said OPEC+ may pause the return of 2.2-million barrels of daily production cuts to the market following the initial April tranche. Gold prices edged higher early on Friday as the dollar fell to a four-month low after the U.S. reported a smaller than expected rise in employment last month.

But natural gas prices fell for a second day as milder spring weather lowers heating demand while a day-prior inventory report showed storage fell less than expected last week.

Bloomberg has noted today that U.S. President Donald Trump said tariffs on Mexico and Canada could go higher than a 25% rate imposed earlier this week, injecting further uncertainty into trade policies that have rattled markets and left businesses on edge. Trump's comments came in an interview that aired Friday, a day after he paused those tariffs until April 2 for Mexican and Canadian goods covered by the USMCA trade agreement he struck in his first term -- a move that offered a brief reprieve for two major US trading partners.

Desjardins noted that as businesses awaited news on tariffs, hiring in the Canadian economy stalled in February. The Canadian economy only added 1K jobs over the month, well below expectations for a 20K increase. That comes after three months of strong job gains in which the economy added 211K new jobs. The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 6.6% largely due to a two tick drop in the participation rate. Desjardins said the slowdown in hiring even before tariffs were implemented gives the Bank of Canada an easy pass to cut interest rates another 25 basis points next week. Desjardins noted markets are pricing almost 90% odds that the central bank eases again. Rates were falling across the Government of Canada yield curve following the weak jobs numbers after yesterday's selloff.

Elsewhere, a Macquarie Strategist has weighed in on why President Trump dropped the punitive tariffs on Canada and Mexico.

Thierry Wizman, Global FX & Rates Strategist at Macquarie, noted yesterday's was the second (partial) reprieve from punitive 25% tariffs for Canada and Mexico. He said Macquarie can think of a few reasons why it was done, including: the first is domestic politics; the second is legal considerations; the third is domestic U.S. price inflation; and the fourth is concessions.

Finally, Wizman said, another motivator for delaying tariffs may have been Canada's changing political and electoral dynamics. Trump would prefer to have a Conservative majority-led government in Canada, rather than a Liberal-led government, as has been the case since 2015. "And Trump was probably informed -- and wised-up -- to the premise that his tariffs on Canada should have waited until after Canada's election, if they came at all, because they had so far only served to help install his ideological rivals into power. Trying to resuscitate the Conservatives' chances may have been a reason for letting Canada off the hook on tariffs."