12:16 PM EDT, 08/20/2024 (MT Newswires) -- The Toronto Stock Exchange is down 78 points at midday with all sectors lower, after closing at a record high the day before on eight straight wins.

The biggest decliners are energy (2%) and miners (-0.9%).

Oil prices steadied early on Tuesday following two losing sessions that came on weak demand from China and easing geopolitical tension.

Gold rose to a record high as the dollar and treasury yields moved lower on expectations the Federal Reserve is ready to begin cutting interest rates at next month's meeting of its policy committee.

Natural gas fell off a one-month high despite hot long-term forecasts and lower supply.

Of most interest to stock pickers here, headline inflation kept easing in Canada in July to 2.5% year-over-year, that was the lowest reading since March 2021.

For RBC the bottom line is that today's CPI print should be enough to quell concerns about sticky inflation pressures in Canada after two marginal upside surprises in May and June. RBC said: "Readings were unequivocally weak -- with slowing evident among all core CPI measures." RBC noted the scope of price pressures also continued to normalize, adding "the diffusion index says the breadth of inflation in Canada is looking similar to pre-pandemic norm in 2019". According to RBC, that's good news for the Bank of Canada, which is actively turning the focus onto a weakening economic backdrop and the disinflationary pressures that could stem from that moving forward. RBC said the hurdle for more BoC cuts this year is low and it continues to look for another 25 basis point cut at the next meeting in September.

CIBC for its part noted inflationary pressures continue to fade, and said were it not for the continued upward pressure from mortgage interest costs inflation would have been in-line with a 2% target in every month since the start of the year. With inflation appearing to be under control, CIBC added, the BoC has more leeway to set policy in response to downside risks to the economy stemming from the rise in the unemployment rate. CIBC continues to forecast three further 25bp interest rate cuts at the remaining BoC meetings of 2024.