By Avinash P
(Reuters) -Canada’s main stock index was little changed on Monday, as investors digested a local inflation print, while caution swept across markets ahead of Nvidia’s results and the resumption of U.S. government data releases.
At 9:55 a.m. ET, Toronto’s S&P/TSX composite index was down 0.05% at 30,312.21 points.
Technology and energy shares led the rebound last week, helping the index snap a two-week losing streak and deliver a weekly gain of 1.4% – the strongest since late September.
Canada’s annual inflation rate eased to 2.2% in October, official data showed. Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast the inflation to be at 2.1%.
The country’s inflation has spent most of 2025 hugging the Bank of Canada’s sweet spot, but the recent uptick is a reminder that price pressures are not fully tamed.
After a soft patch earlier this year, headline CPI climbed back to 2.4% in September. Core gauges remain around the 3% level, underscoring why policymakers are not rushing to declare victory – and why rate-cut bets may stay on ice a little longer.
“The modest upside surprise to headline inflation in October was largely due to one-off factors. That lends some support to our view that the Bank of Canada will eventually feel comfortable in cutting interest rates further”, said Stephen Brown, deputy chief North America economist at Capital Economics.
“The good news for the Bank is that the price rises were concentrated in a narrow range of items. The Bank is overestimating underlying inflation pressures.”
Investors now look forward to a speech by BoC Deputy Governor Nicolas Vincent on Wednesday and Thursday’s U.S. jobs data, which could do little more than confirm earlier private market surveys showing the labor market had slowed.
In corporate news, Reuters reported that the board of Canada’s Barrick Mining has raised the possibility of splitting the company into two separate entities, citing sources close to the company. Shares were up 1%.
Stantec’s shares fell 3.7% after brokerage Stifel cut its target price on the engineering service provider to C$169 from C$175.
(Reporting by Avinash P and Pranav Kashyap in Bengaluru; Editing by Shreya Biswas)
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