It was a week that swung on two things Canadians feel directly at the pump and on their mortgage statement: a resurgent Iran conflict that sent oil sharply higher, and a Bank of Canada that held rates steady on Wednesday while warning, in plain language, that its next move is more likely up than down. Add in Friday's surprising jobs numbers on both sides of the border, and markets closed out the holiday-shortened week largely where they started — but the story underneath the flat headline number is anything but calm. Here's what moved, what it means for your wallet, and what's coming next.
🇨🇦 Canada: TSX
The S&P/TSX Composite whipsawed through the week before landing almost exactly where it began, closing Friday at 36,514, down 0.33% on the day and roughly flat versus last Friday's close near 36,554.
| Day | Close | Change |
| Mon Aug 31 | 36,270.48 | -283.44 (-0.78%) |
| Tue Sept 1 | 35,825.73 | -444.75 (-1.23%) — 4-week low |
| Wed Sept 2 | 36,091.61 | +265.88 (+0.74%) |
| Thu Sept 3 | 36,633.12 | +541.51 (+1.50%) |
| Fri Sept 4 | 36,514.00 | -0.33% |
Tuesday's near one-month low came as surging oil and gas prices reignited inflation worries just as Canada-U.S. trade tensions flared again. Miners led the Wednesday rebound as gold and silver firmed on the BoC's rate hold, and Thursday's rally was broad-based on dovish comments from a U.S. Fed official. Friday's pullback came after a weak Canadian jobs report and a blowout U.S. one pointed in opposite directions, with major banks and gold miners both trading lower into the close.
🇺🇸 United States
| Index | Friday Close | Week |
| Dow Jones | 53,414.25 (-0.51% Fri) | -0.3% |
| S&P 500 | 7,718.60 (-0.38% Fri) | +0.1% |
| Nasdaq Composite | 26,506.99 (-0.29% Fri) | +0.4% |
U.S. markets swung from a sharp Monday selloff on renewed Iran strikes, to a Tuesday-Wednesday slide on rising bond yields, to Thursday's sharp rally after Fed Governor Christopher Waller signalled he'd favour holding rates steady this month — before Friday's jobs shock reversed course again. U.S. nonfarm payrolls jumped 162,000 in August, roughly three times the 53,000-55,000 economists expected, with June and July revised higher too. The unemployment rate held at 4.1%. The stronger print pushed the odds of a Fed rate hike at the September 15-16 meeting back up toward 50%, hitting rate-sensitive tech and bank stocks. U.S. markets are closed Monday, September 7 for Labour Day.
🌍 Europe & Asia
Europe had one of its tougher weeks: the STOXX Europe 600 closed Friday at 649.88 (+0.1% on the day) but fell roughly 0.8% for the week. London's FTSE 100 finished Thursday at 10,809.88, Germany's DAX at 26,128.29, and France's CAC 40 at 8,267.43, with the region weighed down by the same rising-yield, Iran-conflict pressures hitting North America.
Asia was mixed. Japan's Nikkei 225 jumped 1.26% Friday to 65,020.94 on a SoftBank-led rebound, but still finished the week down about 2%, its fourth straight losing session before Friday's bounce. Hong Kong's Hang Seng surged 1.75% Friday and ended the week higher, bucking the regional trend, while South Korea's Kospi and mainland China's Shanghai Composite were roughly flat to modestly higher over the week.
🛢️ Commodities & Currency
- Oil: WTI settled Friday at $91.48 (+0.2% on the day), up more than 8% for the week; Brent topped $96 on Thursday — a six-week high — before easing back below $94 on Friday. The move came as the U.S. and Iran resumed military exchanges near the Strait of Hormuz.
- Gold: Spot gold eased to roughly $4,470-4,485 US/oz Friday (about $6,130-6,190 CAD/oz), down slightly on the day after a two-session rally driven by the same dovish Fed comments that lifted equities Thursday.
- Loonie: USD/CAD ended the week around 1.3806, with the Canadian dollar on track for roughly a 0.7% weekly gain, supported by higher oil prices and the BoC's more hawkish tone.
🏦 Bank of Canada: A Hold With a Warning
The Bank of Canada held its policy rate at 2.25% on Wednesday for a seventh straight decision — but Governor Tiff Macklem's tone shifted. Where earlier statements framed the next move as roughly balanced between a cut and a hold, September's statement explicitly flagged Canada's new retaliatory tariffs, the ongoing U.S. tariff regime, and elevated oil prices as risks tilting inflation to the upside. Credit markets are now pricing better than 60% odds of a quarter-point hike by December, with a hike close to fully priced in by the Bank's late-January decision. The next scheduled announcement is October 28.
What It Means for You: If you're up for a mortgage renewal in the next year, this week's shift in tone is worth paying attention to even though the rate itself didn't move. A BoC that's actively signalling hike risk, rather than staying neutral, changes the math on whether to lock in a fixed rate now versus riding out a variable. Meanwhile, Friday's weak Canadian jobs number (employment fell by 41,700 in August, against expectations for a 15,000 gain) pulls in the opposite direction — it's the kind of soft data that normally argues for a cut. That tug-of-war between hot inflation risk and a cooling job market is exactly why forecasters remain split, and why locking in certainty may be worth more than chasing the lowest possible rate right now.
📅 What to Watch Next Week
| Date | Event |
| Mon, Sept 7 | Labour Day — Canadian and U.S. markets closed |
| Tue, Sept 8 | Canada's retaliatory tariffs take effect on six sectors (steel, dairy, appliances, ag equipment, pulp/paper, electronics) |
| Thu, Sept 10 | European Central Bank rate decision |
| Fri, Sept 11 | U.S. August CPI and core CPI |
| Mon, Sept 14 | Statistics Canada releases August CPI |
| Sept 15-16 | U.S. Federal Reserve rate decision |
Market data cross-verified against Investing.com, Yahoo Finance, Trading Economics, Bank of Canada, and Reuters reporting as of market close September 4, 2026. Figures may be revised by exchanges after publication.
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