TSX Down Near 260 Points at Midday, With Commodities The Worst Performers

12:22 PM EST, 02/17/2026 (MT Newswires) -- The Toronto Stock Exchange is down 260 points at midday, with commodities posting the biggest losses.

Miners is down 3.4%, followed by energy, down 1.3%.

The biggest gainers are industrials, and utilities, up 1.2% and 0.7%, respectively.

StatsCan reported CPI rose 2.3% y/y in January, edging down from a 2.4% rise in December. Gasoline price's 16.7% decline the largest contributor to deceleration although the agency noted the drop was mainly due to base year effect. Excluding gasoline CPI rose 3.0% in January, at the same pace as December. Excluding food and energy the CPI rose 2.4% y/y in January, StatsCan said.

For RBC, the bottom line is that the tick lower in Canada's headline year-over-year rate to 2.3% in January (2.4% in December) was despite tax-related distortions that biased the measure higher after-tax prices this year measured against tax exempt prices a year ago during the temporary 2024-2025 GST/HST tax holiday. Excluding the impact of indirect taxes, year-over-year price growth slowed to 2.1%. Also, the Bank of Canada's core trim and median measures, designed to provide a better gauge of underlying price growth and, critically, exclude changes in indirect taxes, continued to edge lower, dropping to 2.5% on average on a year-over-year basis (2.6% in December) on a smaller than expected 0.1% month-over-month change.

RBC said: "Lower inflation reading leaves the BoC with more flexibility to respond to weakening economic conditions with lower interest rates if necessary, although we do not expect as a base-case that additional reductions will be needed. Pockets of price growth are still high (grocery prices in particular.) Year-over-year growth in the trim and median measures have still been above the 2% inflation target for almost five years. And there have been signs that (per worker) labour markets have started to improve at current levels of interest rates."

National Bank said overall the report released this morning is not expected to radically change the central bank's view that current interest rates are appropriate to keep inflation close to 2.0%. "Due to the current uncertainty, the labour market has a surplus of workers on the sidelines, which is reflected in a significant moderation in wage pressures. The good news from the last two months of CPI data is that, should the economy unexpectedly deteriorate amid heightened trade tensions, the central bank will have the flexibility to provide additional support," it added.

BNN TV reported that Canada and Mexico have signed a preliminary trade understanding designed to see the countries expand port to port trade, while they will also hold talks on increasing security ties. The Canadian federal government sees investment opportunities in Mexico across pharmaceuticals and agriculture, BNN TV said.

This comes as CTV News reported that hundreds of delegates representing businesses and key sectors from across Canada are taking part in this country's biggest trade mission to Mexico in decades this week.

In stocks, Belo Sun Mining (BSXGF) surged 66% to a multi-year high of $0.93 after it reported Brazil's federal regional court has accepted the company's appeal to reinstate the installation license for the Volta Grande project. The license was suspended in 2017.

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