S&P/TSX Composite

What moves it

• Financials, energy and materials together account for the majority of index weight, so bank earnings, crude and gold move the composite more than technology does.
• Bank of Canada policy expectations, which reprice the banks, the utilities and the real-estate names at the same time.
• The Canadian dollar, because most large index members earn revenue abroad and report in Canadian dollars.

The Canadian angle

This is the default benchmark for Canadian equity performance. Because a handful of banks and pipeline operators carry outsized weight, the composite can move materially on a single sector's results — a level change is not always a broad move.

How to read it: The composite is a price index in the form quoted here; total-return series that add dividends compound noticeably faster over long periods.