Canadian stock futures rose as oil extended gains and gold rose to a three-week high after minutes from the Federal Reserve's last policy meeting suggested the U.S. central bank was in no hurry to raise interest rates.
The S&P/TSX composite index zoomed 110.31 points to close Thursday at 13,978.66
The Canadian dollar hiked 0.47 cents to 77.3 cents U.S. early Friday
Markets in Canada will be shut down Monday for Thanksgiving.
The investment arm of Israeli gas firm Delek Group has acquired a near 20% stake in Ithaca Energy for $66 million. The deal underlines investors still see value in North Sea related businesses, despite a slump in oil prices and high operating costs in one of the world's most mature oil and gas basins.
RBC raisesd the price target on Rogers Communications Inc. to $47.00 from $46.00, expressing the opinion that the period of underperformance for the company has ended and expect a continued narrowing of its discount to large-cap peers.
Morgan Stanley raised the target price on Sun Life Financial to $46.00 from $45.00, says Canadian insurers should also benefit from widening corporate bond spreads.
On the economic front, Statistics Canada reported that the economy created only 12,000 jobs in September, as the unemployment rate was boosted 0.1 percentage points to 7.1%., as more people took part in the labour market.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange added 4.38 points Thursday to 547.06
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stock futures are sitting around the levels where they closed on Thursday while global markets rally.
Ahead of the opening bell, futures for the Dow Jones Industrials gained 23 points, or 0.1%, to 16,989, futures for the S&P 500 moved higher 2.25 points, or 0.1%, to 2,008.75, and futures for the NASDAQ were unchanged at 4,344.75.
Shares in Alcoa look set to drop by 4% at the open after the company reported a disappointing set of earnings on Thursday evening.
Investors were unimpressed by a five-week sales report from Gap and shares are dipping by about 6% in extended trading.
The battered mining giant Glencore announced Friday it will cut its zinc production by a third. The cutback will see the world's zinc output drop by 4%. Investors responded by bidding shares up by 8% in London. Glencore's shares have more than halved this year as investors worry about low commodity prices.
European markets are all up in early trading, boosted by mining and energy companies.
Asian markets ended the session with gains.
Minutes from the September meeting of the Federal Reserve came out Thursday afternoon, revealing the Fed was worried about the impact of the slowing global economy when considering whether to raise interest rates.
These minutes pushed the dollar down and gave a boost to commodities.
Oil prices added 92 cents to $50.35 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices picked up $12.86 to $1,151.87 U.S. an ounce.
