The S&P/TSX Composite closed at 36,265.09 on October 28, up 93.60 points or 0.26%, as technology and energy stocks gained after the Bank of Canada raised its policy rate to 2.50%. It was the third straight advance and left the index 0.19% below its September 22 close, the high of the five-week window.
The TSX has now recovered nearly all of a 3.6% drawdown that bottomed on October 7, and it is up about 14% for the year to date, according to MarketScreener.
The dashed line is a five-session moving average computed from the closes shown. The index fell 3.6% from September 22 to October 7 and has recovered 3.5% since.
A Round Trip in Five Weeks
The index fell from 36,335.61 on September 22 to 35,041.86 on October 7, a decline of 3.6% in eleven sessions, which left it about 5.2% below the August 25 high of 36,957.63. It then climbed 3.5% to the October 28 close, with a pullback to 35,584.46 on October 14 and another to 35,788.18 on October 23 along the way.
The index has closed above 36,000 on six sessions since October 15, including each of the last two. The August 25 high now sits about 1.9% above the latest close.
What Drove October 28
MT Newswires attributed the gain to technology and energy shares following the rate decision. Reuters noted that miners weighed on the index earlier in the session. The two-year government bond yield reached a two-year high after the announcement, and the Canadian dollar firmed to about 71 US cents. Reuters reported that markets expect several more increases over the next year.
A rate increase would normally be read as a headwind for equities, and the index rose anyway. The decision had been widely anticipated: Scotiabank, UBS, Manulife and Oxford Economics had each predicted an October increase, so much of the news was expected before it arrived.
Oil Stays Near $115
Brent settled at $115.32 on October 28, up 1.3%, and West Texas Intermediate settled at $102.78, up 2.9%. The Strait of Hormuz remains closed, and crude inventories in the United States fell for a fourth straight week. Brent slipped about 1% in Asian trading on October 29 on reports of a diplomatic overture to Iran.
The US Read-Through
The S&P 500 closed at 7,743.98, up 0.28%, its third straight gain and its first higher close on a Federal Reserve decision day since December 2025. The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.27% to 26,549.85, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.19% to 52,475.10, and the Nasdaq-100 rose 0.55% to 29,813.16. Oracle gained 11%, and results from SK Hynix lifted artificial intelligence and memory names.
The Fed held its range at 3.75% to 4.00% in a 10 to 2 vote, with Governor Lisa Cook and Cleveland Fed president Beth Hammack dissenting in favour of an increase. Chair Kevin Warsh gave no explicit guidance. Both the Fed and the Bank of Canada meet again on December 9, after the US midterm elections on November 3, the federal budget on November 5 and the October CPI release on November 16.