Canada’s equity market moved higher on Friday as traders weighed fresh U.S. inflation data and an uncertain ceasefire in the Middle East while adjusting exposure to resource-linked names. By 12:31 ET, the S&P/TSX 60 had climbed 10 points, or 0.5%, and the broader S&P/TSX Composite was up 180 points, also 0.5%.
The commodity-heavy TSX benefited from a modest uptick in oil prices, which remained supported by ongoing disruptions to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz off Iran’s southern coast. Those disruptions and a decline in Saudi Arabian output have continued to underpin crude despite a temporary U.S.-Iran ceasefire announced earlier in the week.
Canadian markets had paused a recent run of gains in the prior session, when the S&P/TSX Composite ended lower by 0.4% at 33,477.71, snapping a six-session winning streak.
U.S. markets and risk tone
Across the border, U.S. equities were mixed by mid-day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average had retreated 256 points, or 0.5%, while the S&P 500 was down about 6 points, or 0.1%. The Nasdaq 100 bucked the broader trend, advancing 61 points, or 0.3%.
Equity momentum on Wall Street had been buoyed earlier in the week by comments from Israeli leadership that talks with Lebanon would be initiated, and by the appearance of a short-term ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran. Despite those developments, Israel continued to strike Iran-aligned Hezbollah positions in Lebanon, including actions on Friday morning.
Iranian officials have signalled that if Israeli strikes on Hezbollah continue, planned discussions on a longer-term settlement with Washington could be jeopardized. There is also a dispute between the U.S. and Iran over whether Lebanon was included in the two-week ceasefire arrangement reached this week. Even so, the prospect that hostilities could ease on a prolonged, if uneasy, basis has supported risk appetite; U.S. stocks reached a seventh consecutive session of gains earlier in the week, and the blue-chip Dow has moved back into positive territory year-to-date.
Separately, consumer discretionary names received a lift after Amazon’s CEO reported that the company’s artificial intelligence services within its cloud division are generating more than $15 billion in revenue, a development that supported demand in the sector.
Maritime disruptions and oil supply
Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz remained sharply curtailed. Reuters reported that tanker traffic was well below 10% of typical volumes on Thursday, despite the temporary ceasefire. Iran has instructed vessels to remain within its territorial waters when transiting the narrow route, which has threatened the flow of roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil.
Several Asian economies rely heavily on crude shipments that traverse the strait, while European natural gas supplies are connected to Persian Gulf producers that have been targeted by Iranian-linked attacks. Additionally, bombardments of Saudi energy infrastructure have reduced the kingdom’s oil output capacity by about 600,000 barrels per day and lowered throughput on its East-West Pipeline by roughly 700,000 barrels per day, according to Saudi state news agency SPA.
The twin effects of constricted shipping through Hormuz and declined Saudi production capacity pushed oil prices higher. Brent crude futures were quoted at $95.92 per barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures were at $98.02 per barrel, a rise of 0.2% at the time of reporting. Although the U.S.-Iran ceasefire has placed crude on track for its largest weekly decline since June 2025, benchmark prices remain substantially above pre-conflict levels seen before the start of the joint U.S.-Israeli campaign against Iran in late February.
Inflation and market implications
Investors were also focusing on U.S. consumer inflation, which accelerated sharply in March, largely driven by higher energy costs linked to the Iran conflict. The Labor Department’s consumer price index rose 3.3% on an annual basis in the twelve months to March, up from 2.4% in February and slightly below economists’ expectations of 3.4%. Month-on-month, the CPI jumped 0.9%, compared with a 0.3% increase in the prior month; consensus expectations for the monthly figure had been 1.0%.
Energy costs were the principal driver of the move, with energy prices surging 12.5% annually in March after a 0.5% year-on-year increase in February. The national average retail gasoline price climbed above $4 a gallon for the first time in over three years. Diesel prices also rose markedly, which can raise transportation costs across supply chains and feed into broader price pressures.
Ahead of the CPI release, ING analysts suggested that policymakers at the Federal Reserve might choose not to place excessive weight on the headline monthly increase. That view noted that the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, the personal consumption expenditures price index, had been in line with expectations earlier in the week. GDP data also indicated that U.S. economic growth in the fourth quarter was much slower than initially reported.
Precious metals and the dollar
Gold prices were largely flat in trading, leaving bullion on track for a weekly gain. Despite gold’s conventional role as a safe-haven asset, it has underperformed during the Iran conflict amid a contemporaneous surge in oil-driven inflation concerns and a stronger U.S. dollar that has made gold costlier for overseas buyers. Nevertheless, fresh hopes for a more durable ceasefire contributed to a weakening in a dollar index of more than 1% over the past week, offering some support to gold.
Market participants are continuing to parse the interaction between geopolitical developments, energy market disruptions, and evolving inflation readings as they assess implications for asset allocation, monetary policy expectations, and sector-level exposures.