Canadian stocks looked set to open lower on Thursday as investors digested the country's GDP data for May.
The S&P/TSX composite index gained 78.27 points to close Wednesday trading at 15,524.82, with futures off 0.2% Thursday.
The Canadian dollar listed lower 0.13 cents to 91.60 cents U.S. early Thursday
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc, which is trying to take over Botox-maker Allergan Inc, said net income rose nearly 12-fold, boosted by strong sales at its Bausch & Lomb lens business.
China's foreign ministry accused Canada of making irresponsible accusations lacking any credible evidence after Canada singled out Chinese hackers for attacking a key computer network and lodged a protest with Beijing.
Bombardier Inc reported a slightly higher-than-expected second-quarter profit, boosted by higher sales of planes and trains.
The German government will not raise any objections to BlackBerry's planned acquisition of Secusmart, whose encryption technology protects the devices of government officials including Angela Merkel, the head of the company said.
RBC cut the rating on First Quantum Minerals to sector perform from outperform
On the economic beat, Statistics Canada reported this morning that real gross domestic product rose 0.4% in May, a fifth consecutive monthly increase. The output of service industries grew 0.4% and the output of goods-producing industries increased 0.5%.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange lost 5.4 points Wednesday to 1,011.10
ON WALLSTREET
Stock markets could end July with a whimper.
Ahead of the opening bell, futures for the Dow Jones Industrials plummeted 84 points, or 0.5%, to 16,737. Futures for the S&P 500 slid 9.75 points, or 0.5%, to 1,955.75, and futures for the NASDAQ gave up 21.75 points, or 0.6%, to 3,946.75.
Shares in Yum! Brands plunged by about 6% pre-market. The company, which owns the KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell brands, warned Thursday that global profits could suffer this year as sales in China tumble following revelations that one of its suppliers was using tainted and expired meat.
Whole Food shares could see heavy trading after the company issued a disappointing outlook for earnings and sales. The stock was down in extended trading.
Shares in Adidas slumped by nearly 15% in Frankfurt after the sporting goods company warned that earnings may take a hit as it struggles with slumping golf sales and problems in Russia.
Shares in Royal Dutch Shell are surging by about 4% in London after the firm reported robust second-quarter earnings.
A large number of companies around the world are reporting results Thursday.
Anheuser-Busch InBev, MasterCard, DirecTV, Kellogg, Exxon Mobil, and Time Warner Cable are among the big names reporting before the opening bell.
Tesla Motors, LinkedIn and GoPro will report after the close.
On the economic front, the U.S. government posted weekly jobless claims numbers at 8:30 a.m. ET.
European markets were broadly in the red in early trading. Germany's benchmark DAX index was declining by nearly 1%.
Asian markets ended with mixed results.
Oil prices dipped 70 cents to $99.57 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices slid 50 cents to $1,294.40 U.S. an ounce.
