The TSX Composite closed at 36,814 Wednesday, essentially unchanged from Tuesday's record close of 36,957.63. The pause came as gold miners sold off across the board, Agnico Eagle down 3.8% and Wheaton Precious Metals down 4.2%, after a hotter-than-forecast U.S. inflation print pushed gold prices lower and raised the odds of a Federal Reserve rate hike. National Bank, despite beating third-quarter profit estimates, fell 5.1% the same session, the one bank in this week's earnings cluster that the market did not reward.
Thursday morning brought the rest of the Big Six to the tape. Royal Bank of Canada reported record net income of $6.0 billion, up 11% year over year, with diluted earnings per share of $4.23 against a roughly $4.08 consensus. CIBC's adjusted net income rose 26% to $2.65 billion. Early trading had RBC up about half a percent, TD up roughly a percent, and CIBC up about 0.3%, all three clearing the bar the market set after Tuesday's mixed reception.
Six Banks, One Week, Two Different Stories
The chart below lines up all six Big Six reactions from this week's reporting cluster. Five of six traded higher on their results. Scotiabank's 7% jump Tuesday was the standout, its best single-day move in more than six years on a record quarter. National Bank's 5.1% decline sits alone on the other side of the ledger, a genuine outlier against a sector that has otherwise rewarded this earnings season generously.
For the TSX Composite, financials carrying five of six beats higher is doing real work against a backdrop that would otherwise have pushed the index lower: Ottawa's retaliatory tariffs taking effect September 8, a hot U.S. PCE print that hit gold miners directly, and a trade relationship with Washington that shows no sign of near-term resolution.
RBC, TD and CIBC reactions reflect early Thursday trading and may not represent final session closes. Source: TSX trading data, company filings.
The Canadian Read
Financials are the single largest weight in the TSX Composite, and this week is a clean demonstration of what that concentration means in practice. A softer session for gold and materials, itself driven by a U.S. inflation surprise with nothing to do with Canada specifically, was more than offset by bank earnings strength. That is a rotation within the index, not a broad-based rally, and the composition matters more than the headline number for anyone assessing whether this week's TSX resilience reflects genuine economic strength or a single sector's earnings calendar landing at a convenient moment.