s tied to Middle East tensions, and a few company stories still stood out, like logistics firm TFI International rising after an analyst upgrade. Investors also tracked trade headlines around the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) after US officials signaled progress with Mexico but slower talks with Canada, plus softer-than-expected Canadian housing-starts data for June.
Why should I care?
For markets: Spot gold fell 1.6% and TSX materials dropped 3.6%.
Miners often act like a magnified version of the metal price. When gold slips, investors tend to cut their forecasts for miners’ future profits faster than the commodity move alone would suggest, because revenue resets with gold while many costs (labor, fuel, equipment, and financing) don’t fall as quickly. That “operating leverage” is why a 1.6% drop in spot gold lined up with a 3.6% slide in the materials sector and 6%-7% declines in some gold and silver names. The upshot: day-to-day direction in a materials-heavy benchmark like the TSX can be driven by miners even when other big groups, such as energy, are holding up.