TSX Market Wrap — Thursday, October 29, 2026: Gold Miners Slide, Banks and Health Care Hold the Line

Tape snapshot: S&P/TSX on October 29

The S&P/TSX Composite Index closed at 36,249.03, down 16.06 points (-0.04%). That ended a three-session winning streak, but only just. The index opened around 36,186, dipped to an intraday low near 36,085, and reached a high near 36,343. It was up about 31 points in late-morning trading before it faded through the afternoon.

Under the flat headline, the index was split. Materials, tech and gold miners pulled it down. Banks, utilities and health care held it up. The Canadian dollar firmed to 71.51 US cents, up from 71.25 on Wednesday.

South of the border, the S&P 500 fell 23.59 points to 7,720.39, the Dow lost 132.54 points to 52,342.56, and the Nasdaq dropped 365.13 points (about 1.4%) to 26,184.72.

What drove the TSX on October 29

A hawkish US backdrop hit gold. New data showed the US economy grew at its fastest pace in a year in the third quarter, and price pressures picked up in September. Traders put the odds of a Federal Reserve rate hike in December at roughly 80%. When rate-hike odds rise, gold usually loses some of its appeal, and the December gold contract fell US$20.20 to US$4,031.40 an ounce. On the TSX, gold is a big part of the materials group, so the drop showed up quickly.

Gold miners had weak quarters too. Some miners added company-specific disappointments on top of the softer metal price (see Big movers).

Big Tech’s AI spending was questioned again. Google parent Alphabet fell about 13% in New York after missing third-quarter estimates and reporting negative free cash flow as it spends heavily on AI. That weighed on tech stocks on both sides of the border.

The Bank of Canada’s hike was still sinking in. On Wednesday, the Bank of Canada raised its policy rate 25 basis points to 2.5%. It was the first increase since July 2023, aimed at keeping high energy prices from spreading into broader inflation. Markets now fully expect another Canadian hike by January. Banks often benefit from higher rates through wider lending margins, and they led the defensive side of the tape.

Sectors on the move

• Materials: about -2.9%, the largest drag. The gold subgroup fell about 3.6%.
• Information technology: about -1.2%, following US tech lower.
• Energy: about -0.2%. Crude eased on hopes for Middle East peace talks, though oil stayed above US$100.
• Financials: about +1%. The heavyweight banks did much of the work keeping the index near flat.
• Health care was the top group, up about 6.8%, almost entirely because of one large move (Bausch Health).
• Utilities gained about 1.1%. Every major sector other than materials, tech and energy finished higher.

Big movers on the TSX

• Bausch Health (BHC): +28.3%, to about $12.39, after its third-quarter results beat estimates and it raised its annual forecast.
• Allied Properties REIT (AP.UN): -18.9%, to about $4.32, the index’s biggest decliner. The office landlord reported a roughly 6.6% year-over-year drop in rental revenue.
• Alamos Gold (AGI): -9.1%, to about $40.38, after third-quarter profit missed estimates.
• Kinross Gold (K): -6.3%, to about $30.15, after quarterly revenue fell 2%.
• Celestica (CLS): -5.8%, to about $396.12, in line with the broader slide in tech stocks.
• Agnico Eagle Mines (AEM): -4.1%, to about $245.54. It fell even though profit came in above expectations, which shows how much the gold price mattered.
• Definity Financial (DFY): +2.9%, to about $73.26.
• Algonquin Power (AQN): +2%, to about $7.60, and Canadian Utilities (CU) gained 1.7% to about $52.34.

Moves of this size usually come from earnings surprises, not from the broader market. A single report can reprice one stock even on a day the index barely moves.

Rates, CAD & risk tone

The loonie edged up a day after the Bank of Canada hike. In the US, the 10-year Treasury yield eased to about 4.96% from about 5.05%, though that didn’t help tech much. December crude settled down 78 cents at US$102.00 a barrel. The overall mood was cautious rather than fearful. The TSX Venture Exchange fell about 1.5% to 826.64, a sign that smaller and more speculative resource stocks lost favour.

Statistics Canada also reported that payroll employment fell by 49,600 (-0.3%) in August. It was a small but real sign of cooling in the job market at a time when the central bank is raising rates.

What to watch next

• Friday, October 30: Statistics Canada releases August GDP by industry, plus an early estimate for September. The earlier advance reading pointed to 0.2% growth in August.
• Wednesday, November 4: Canada’s September merchandise trade figures, which matter for the energy and resource export story.
• Friday, November 6: The October Labour Force Survey, a key read on whether the Bank of Canada’s next move is another hike.
• Through December: Fed hike expectations and the gold price. Today showed how quickly a hawkish US data surprise can spill into Canadian miners.

Bottom line

A flat close hid a real rotation: gold and tech gave back ground while banks, utilities and an earnings surprise in health care kept the TSX essentially flat.

Sources

• The Canadian Press via BNN Bloomberg — S&P/TSX closing report, October 29, 2026 (index, US indexes, Canadian dollar, crude and gold settlements)
• Reuters closing TSX report by Fergal Smith, October 29, 2026 (sector moves, Fed and BoC expectations, Alamos, Allied, Bausch Health)
• Reuters intraday TSX report, October 29, 2026 (Kinross revenue, Alphabet results)
• Baystreet.ca, “TSX Wanes to End Thursday,” October 29, 2026 (individual closing prices, subgroup moves, TSX Venture, US Treasury yield)
• RTTNews, “Canadian Stocks Little Changed As Investors Parse BoC Rate Decision,” October 29, 2026
• Bank of Canada interest rate announcement, October 28, 2026
• Statistics Canada release schedule and payroll employment release, October 2026
• S&P/TSX Composite daily open/high/low/close, October 29, 2026 (public index history)

Media credits

A Wikimedia Commons photograph, cropped to 16:9 and resized for this page. No AI-generated images were used.

• Hero: “Bay Street, Toronto, March 8 2025” by Dillan Payne, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. A Bay Street sign in Toronto’s financial district, March 2025 — a streetscape, not a photo of this session.

By Andrew · stocksummarizer.com