Investment update

Weekly insight into the marketplace.

September 8 to 12, 2025

Equity markets rose on rate cut hopes

U.S. stock markets advanced on Monday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq closed at a record level, gaining 0.45%, as shares of AI chipmakers Nvidia and Broadcom rallied. Canada’s TSX closed with a modest 0.08% loss. On Tuesday, all the major U.S. stock indexes closed in record territory. Investor optimism that the U.S. Federal Reserve (the Fed) will cut interest rates on September 17 outweighed downbeat payroll data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics. The Dow was the big winner, closing 0.43% higher. The TSX rose 0.12% following news that Vancouver’s Teck Resources had agreed to a merger with Anglo American PLC to create a Canadian-based critical metals powerhouse valued at approximately $70 billion. On Wednesday, the broad-based S&P 500 came out on top, finishing the day with a 0.30% gain. The Nasdaq was also up, but just slightly at 0.03%. A pullback in Apple shares, following the iPhone-maker’s latest product announcements, weighed on the Dow, which ended the day 0.48% lower. On Bay Street, strength from the materials and energy sectors lifted the TSX 0.40% higher. U.S. economic data released on Thursday reinforced rate-cut hopes, sending the Wall Street benchmarks higher. The Dow led with a 1.36% gain and closed above the 46,000-point level for the first time ever. The TSX also pushed further into record territory, rising 0.78% after the federal government announced major investments to fast track key infrastructure projects. Performance was mixed on Friday. The Nasdaq finished in record territory while the S&P 500 and Dow dipped into the close of a positive week overall. The TSX also slipped on the way to its sixth-straight weekly gain.

Investors weighed U.S. economic data

U.S Consumer Price Index data, released on Thursday, showed prices continued to rise faster than the Fed’s 2% target rate last month, but fell in line with economist expectations. The prices Americans paid for food, gasoline and other costs of living were 2.9% higher in August from a year earlier, which was slightly higher than July’s 2.7% inflation rate. This would normally be a bad omen for investors hoping the Fed will cut interest rates, but weak labour market data, also released during the week, helped offset concerns. A downward revision to payroll data showed that the U.S. economy added 911,000 fewer jobs than initially reported for the 12-month period ending in March. This was followed by dismal weekly jobless claims data on Thursday, which showed the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits rose to 263,000 in the previous week – the highest level reported in almost four years.

PM Carney announced $60 billion for “nation-building” projects

On Thursday, during a break from the Liberal caucus retreat taking place in Edmonton, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that the federal government is recommending five “nation-building” projects for fast-track approval, representing an investment of more than $60 billion in the Canadian economy. These would be the first in a longer list of projects that are part of the federal government’s plan to protect and grow Canada’s economy in the wake of U.S. tariffs. “By moving forward today, we won’t just catalyze new ports, energy corridors, and other engines of progress. We’ll also open the bounds of Canada’s imagination about the future that we can build for each other,” Carney said. At the top of the list of projects is a liquefied natural gas (LNG) expansion project to double Canada’s LNG production. The other four initiatives include the:

• Contrecoeur Terminal Container project in Quebec to grow the Port of Montreal’s capacity
• Darlington New Nuclear Project in Ontario to make Canada the first G7 country to have an operational small modular reactor
• McIlvenna Bay Foran Copper Mine Project in east-central Saskatchewan
• Red Chris Mine expansion in northwest British Columbia