Equities Weekly — Saturday November 07 2026

TSX Edges Higher as Materials Offset Energy's Sharp Slide

Canadian equities closed the week modestly higher, as a sharp rally in materials and broad defensive buying offset a steep decline in energy shares, leaving the S&P/TSX Composite with a small net gain that masked deep divisions underneath. Utilities, real estate and consumer staples also outperformed, while technology and energy lagged, mirroring a global rotation away from cyclical and high-multiple names toward safer ground. The United States fared worse, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both falling sharply as a volatility spike hit technology hard, while Europe proved more resilient and tracked closer to Canada’s steadier performance. Next week brings a wave of Canadian earnings, including Barrick, Brookfield and Canadian Tire, alongside key US inflation data in the Consumer Price Index and Producer Price Index, both of which could reshape rate expectations and determine whether this week’s rotation into materials and defensives holds or reverses.

The Week in Canadian Equities

The S&P/TSX Composite closed out the week at 35,789.10, up 0.47% from 35,620.00 seven days earlier, a modest headline gain that hides a sharply divided market underneath. The index found support from materials and defensive groups even as energy shares fell hard, and that split, rather than the small net gain, is the real story of the week. The Canadian dollar weakened alongside the broader move, with USD/CAD rising 1.13% to 1.4128 from 1.3970, consistent with broad US dollar strength rather than anything specific at home, and it came as the VIX jumped 32.03% to 25.64, a volatility spike that hit US technology shares far harder than it hit Canada. Energy was the clearest domestic drag, with the sector falling sharply on the week and dragging on a currency that remains closely tied to crude exporters, though no single driver for the weakness shows up in this week’s record. Materials offset that decline with a strong rally, giving the index the cushion it needed to finish higher. Among bank and insurer names, positioning data flagged TD.TO, CNQ.TO, SHOP.TO, RY.TO and BMO.TO as trading in more volatile territory below their gamma flip points, while CM.TO sits right at its flip, a level that often marks a volatility inflection and one worth watching if financials see sharper price action next week. Overall, Canada’s lighter technology weighting looks like the main reason the Composite avoided the worst of this week’s global selloff.

By Athena and Atlas

Sector and Style Leadership

Materials led the S&P/TSX by a wide margin this week, up 11.42%, followed by Utilities (+3.21%), Real Estate (+2.27%) and Consumer Staples (+2.11%), while Financials were essentially flat at +0.23%. Technology fell 3.54% and Energy was the clear laggard, down 12.68%. The pattern is a textbook risk-off rotation: defensive sectors averaged a gain of 2.53% over the week against a 0.34% average loss for cyclicals, a gap of 2.87 points in favour of defensives, in a market that has no separate growth or value style indices to track. The United States showed the same defensive tilt but at far wider extremes. Communication Services led at +4.89% and Real Estate followed at +1.92%, while Technology plunged 8.23% and Energy fell 12.00%, nearly matching the Canadian energy decline. US cyclicals averaged a loss of 2.65% against a defensive gain of 0.48%, a considerably wider spread than in Canada, reflecting the heavier weight of rate-sensitive, high-multiple technology names in US benchmarks. For a Canadian investor the takeaway is that this week’s rotation out of energy and technology and into materials and defensives played out on both sides of the border, but Canada’s resource-heavy materials sector gave the S&P/TSX Composite a cushion that the US market, more exposed to technology, did not have.

By Athena

The United States and Europe

US equities had a difficult week relative to both Canada and Europe. The S&P 500 fell 2.68% to 7,376.86 and the Nasdaq dropped 3.37% to 24,579.43, while the Dow held up better, down 0.94% to 51,285.73, and the Russell 2000 slipped 2.05% to 2,754.11. Europe was the standout: the Euro Stoxx 50 gained 0.64% to 6,170.49 and the STOXX Europe 600 rose 0.24% to 648.33, while the DAX was flat at 25,820.36 and the FTSE 100 eased 0.52% to 10,673.90. The US 10-year yield fell 7.0 basis points to 4.859%, a move that would normally support equity valuations but was not enough to offset the technology-led drawdown, and it came alongside a 32.03% jump in the VIX to 25.64 that marks a clear shift in US sentiment. For Canadian investors the divergence is instructive: the S&P/TSX Composite’s gain this week tracks far closer to Europe’s resilience than to the sharp US tech-driven selloff, a reminder that Canada’s index composition, lighter in technology and heavier in materials and financials, left it better insulated from the volatility spike than its larger southern neighbour.

By Athena

Earnings and Corporate News

The notable Canadian story this week was less a single earnings print than a positioning setup across the banks and energy names. CM.TO sits right at its gamma flip point, often a marker of a coming volatility inflection, while TD.TO, CNQ.TO, SHOP.TO, RY.TO and BMO.TO all trade below their flips despite carrying positive net gamma, a configuration that can amplify moves once price action gets going. Within that group, SU.TO, CVE.TO, K.TO and SLF.TO stand out as the names most likely to see outsized swings, a relevant flag given the sharp 12.68% drop in the TSX Energy sector this week: if crude-linked names remain under pressure, these are the ones positioned to move hardest. On the US side, Delta Air Lines (DAL) completed a $500 million offering of 5.500% notes due November 6, 2029, a routine financing step that does not point to any operational change at the carrier.

By Athena

The Week Ahead

Canadian earnings accelerate next week, with 27 companies reporting in the week of November 9, including Barrick (ABX.TO), Brookfield (BN.TO), Canadian Tire (CTC-A.TO), Power Corporation (POW.TO) and Hudbay Minerals (HBM.TO) among the tracked names, followed by a smaller group of four the week after, including Loblaw (L.TO) and Metro (MRU.TO). Given this week’s sharp divergence between materials and energy, results from companies in those two sectors will be watched closely for signs of whether the rotation extends or reverses. On the data side, the United States releases the Consumer Price Index on Tuesday, November 10 and the Producer Price Index on Friday, November 13, both high-impact prints that will shape rate expectations after labour market data this week came in firmer than forecast, with Non-Farm Employment Change at 165K against a 65K forecast, the unemployment rate down to 4.1%, and average hourly earnings growth up to 0.4% month over month. No dated Canadian releases fall in this window, though Statistics Canada’s inflation, Labour Force Survey and monthly GDP reports remain due on their usual monthly rhythm and will matter for how the Bank of Canada frames its next move.

By Athena

Herald Chief Publishing Officer Written by Herald, with Athena and Atlas Equities Weekly · Saturday, November 07, 2026 · Weekly equities summary