12:10 PM EST, 11/21/2024 (MT Newswires) -- The Toronto Stock Exchange is up 218 points with info tech and energy, both up 1.6%, the biggest gainers.

Telecoms is the biggest decliner, down 1.3%, followed by miners (-0.4%).

Oil prices rose early on Thursday as its geopolitical-risk premium increased after Russia was said to use an intercontinental missile to attack Ukraine, even as supply remains robust.

Gold traded higher for a fourth-straight session as the dollar weakened and Russia's war on Ukraine intensified.

Natural gas surged to the highest in a year ahead of fresh storage data and as long-term forecasts see cold weather coming for nearly all states.

Of note -- and keeping in mind talk of a 'Trump Trade' in markets -- Rosenberg Research in a note today asked 'How Much of A "Mandate" Does Trump Really Have?' and in answering its own question said not as much as what it seems on the surface. It added: "His victory was not really a landslide at all and seems to have been more an anti-Democrat vote than a message that Trump's policies are altogether that popular."

Later, the research noted Republicans held onto the House but did not build on their razor thin majority. And having raided the chamber to fill his appointments, it said Trump is going to end up finding it more difficult to govern through the legislative process. Which, it added, means he will end up trying to do more via executive order, "which cuts both ways". The research said: "More deregulation is likely, which is a good thing, but a greater emphasis on his "beautiful" tariff policy which takes investors into the world where the law of unintended consequences come into play if other countries choose to retaliate and a global trade war ensues (as it did in the 1930s)."

Elsewhere, Oxford Economics is maintaining defensive allocations following the markets' "fairly muted" response to Trump's mandate. It noted market responses suggest there is "too much information and too much uncertainty to process". "Markets are being too sanguine about downside risks, as it is hard to grapple with the implications of Trump's trade policy agenda,." Oxford Economics said, before adding: "We can be certain tariffs will aim to protect US industrial and strategic interests and will target China. Beyond that, implications become murky given Trump's transactional approach to policy and tricky-to-process second-round effects."

Also, a Macquarie strategist said Fed hawks are right to worry about resumption of some U.S. inflation following the US election. Thierry Wizman, Global FX & Rates Strategist, said the prospect that the coming policy agenda change can foster U.S. inflation sooner than when the policies are actually implemented. Wizman said: "US import tariffs, for example, can have that "before-the-fact" effect on US inflation as consumers and businesses may horde goods ahead of the increase in prices that would come with the tariffs. The Fed's hawks, in effect, are right to worry a bit more about the resumption of some US inflation, following the US election. Five-year inflation breakevens, after all, continue to climb toward that critical level of 2.5%, which marks the demarcation between consistency with the Fed's 2.0% inflation target (on the PCE PI) and inconsistency with reaching that target."