TSX Down 41 Points at Midday, Healthcare, Info Tech, Lower

12:12 PM EDT, 08/19/2025 (MT Newswires) -- The Toronto Stock Exchange is down 41 points at midday, with most sectors lower.

Healthcare and info tech are the biggest decliners, down 1.4% and 1%, respectively, followed by miners, down 0.9%.

Industrials, up 0.9%, is the biggest gainer.

TD Economics said headline CPI inflation for July came in at 1.7%, cooling from the 1.9% in June and below expectations for a 1.8% print. TD also noted the Bank of Canada's CPI-trim measure was unchanged for the third month in a row at 3.0% y/y, while the CPI-median index ticked higher to 3.1%.

On key implications, TD said energy prices continue to do the heavy lifting on the top-line measure, but added the softer trend in core inflation is what really jumps out from this report. "The monthly pattern is suggestive of an economy where prices pressures are increasingly offset by growing economic slack."

"On a go-forward basis this report builds on what we saw last month, slowing momentum in core prices as slack in the economy builds. Between February (when trade tensions really flared) and July the economy has added a total of 27k jobs, and now core inflation appears to be losing steam. All together this looks like the scenario the BoC highlighted as giving rise to the "need for a further reduction in the policy interest rate". From our lens, we think the BoC will have room to deliver more easing later this year as the economic slack continues to build and offset inflation pressure," TD said.

Today's data supports CIBC's belief that the acceleration in inflation seen earlier in the year was linked largely to one-off factors, including a pass-through from tariffs, and the slack that is evident in the Canadian economy is now starting to put renewed downward pressure on inflation. If the August data (released a day before the next Bank of Canada meeting) shows a similar trend, CIBC expects that policymakers will be comfortable cutting interest rates by 25bp at the September meeting.

In other data, the Teranet-National Bank House Price Index fell by 0.8% from June to July, the sixth consecutive monthly decline. Prices have fallen by 5% since January.

According to National Bank, this comes against a backdrop where the resale market continues to be "particularly weak", mainly due to the uncertainty surrounding the trade war with the United States. Although the number of transactions on the resale market has risen over the past four months, market conditions across the country have eased considerably and now indicate a balanced market after being tighter than average.

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