{"id":396433,"date":"2026-04-25T03:23:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T03:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/396433\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T03:23:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T03:23:10","slug":"canadas-stocks-held-steady-as-retail-sales-beat-the-gloom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/396433\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada\u2019s Stocks Held Steady As Retail Sales Beat The Gloom"},"content":{"rendered":"<p font-weight=\"400\" font-family=\"paragraph\" font-size=\"1rem,,1.25rem\" class=\"sc-f616428d-0 sc-67b61098-0 dFPYwm kxxbia\">ise in dollar terms, but warned higher gas prices and rising goods prices could keep volumes flat \u2013 a setup that can cool <a data-state=\"closed\" class=\"sc-ce6d94d2-0 huanRg sc-ce6d94d2-2 bvljLv\" href=\"https:\/\/finimize.com\/glossary\/inflation\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">inflation<\/a> without a big growth hit. Meanwhile, sector moves did most of the talking: healthcare and financials rose, but energy and telecoms fell, limiting the index\u2019s upside.<\/p>\n<p font-weight=\"400\" font-family=\"paragraph\" font-size=\"1rem,,1.25rem\" class=\"sc-f616428d-0 sc-67b61098-0 dFPYwm kxxbia\">Why should I care?<\/p>\n<p font-weight=\"400\" font-family=\"paragraph\" font-size=\"1rem,,1.25rem\" class=\"sc-f616428d-0 sc-67b61098-0 dFPYwm kxxbia\">For markets: Strong enough to wait.<\/p>\n<p font-weight=\"400\" font-family=\"paragraph\" font-size=\"1rem,,1.25rem\" class=\"sc-f616428d-0 sc-67b61098-0 dFPYwm kxxbia\">If households keep spending in real terms, the Bank of Canada can afford to hold <a data-state=\"closed\" class=\"sc-ce6d94d2-0 huanRg sc-ce6d94d2-2 bvljLv\" href=\"https:\/\/finimize.com\/glossary\/interest\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">interest<\/a> rates steady while it looks for clearer signs that inflation is cooling. That tends to be a headwind for rate-sensitive areas like housing and some <a data-state=\"closed\" class=\"sc-ce6d94d2-0 huanRg sc-ce6d94d2-2 bvljLv\" href=\"https:\/\/finimize.com\/glossary\/consumer\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">consumer<\/a> <a data-state=\"closed\" class=\"sc-ce6d94d2-0 huanRg sc-ce6d94d2-2 bvljLv\" href=\"https:\/\/finimize.com\/glossary\/stock\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">stocks<\/a>, even if banks benefit from higher rates for longer. And because the TSX is packed with <a data-state=\"closed\" class=\"sc-ce6d94d2-0 huanRg sc-ce6d94d2-2 bvljLv\" href=\"https:\/\/finimize.com\/glossary\/commodity\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">commodity<\/a> producers, oil and gas prices can still overpower \u201cgood\u201d or \u201cbad\u201d domestic data on any given day \u2013 as Friday\u2019s energy drop showed.<\/p>\n<p font-weight=\"400\" font-family=\"paragraph\" font-size=\"1rem,,1.25rem\" class=\"sc-f616428d-0 sc-67b61098-0 dFPYwm kxxbia\">The bigger picture: A calmer economy can still feel tight.<\/p>\n<p font-weight=\"400\" font-family=\"paragraph\" font-size=\"1rem,,1.25rem\" class=\"sc-f616428d-0 sc-67b61098-0 dFPYwm kxxbia\">Even if the topline numbers look decent, many households are running into the same pinch: higher <a data-state=\"closed\" class=\"sc-ce6d94d2-0 huanRg sc-ce6d94d2-2 bvljLv\" href=\"https:\/\/finimize.com\/glossary\/mortgage\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">mortgage<\/a> payments when loans reset and everyday costs that don\u2019t fall as fast as inflation does. If gas prices stay elevated, more of people\u2019s budgets gets pulled toward essentials, which can slow discretionary spending later in the year. For policymakers, that\u2019s the tricky sweet spot \u2013 demand eases and inflation pressure fades, but growth doesn\u2019t necessarily reaccelerate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ise in dollar terms, but warned higher gas prices and rising goods prices could keep volumes flat \u2013&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-396433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}