Stock futures pointed to a higher opening for Canada's main stock index on Wednesday as oil prices rose towards $50.00 per barrel on expectations of shrinking supply due to well fires in Canada and other outages.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index remained afloat 33.27 points to close Tuesday at 13,952.85
The Canadian dollar gathered 0.04 cents, to 76.24 cents early Wednesday
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is concerned about the way Canadian drug maker Valeant Pharmaceuticals International has been disclosing its "non-GAAP" financial measures.
National Bank Financial raised the target price on Saputo to $42.00 from $38.00
The Bank of Canada is set for its next policy decision this morning, with the renewed speculation of an interest-rate increase at the Fed lowering the pressure on the central bank to cut its own lending rates to keep the currency competitive for exports. Higher U.S. rates weaken the Canadian dollar, making this country more attractive for foreign investment.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange slumped 10.83 points, or 1.6%, Tuesday to 675.31.
ON WALLSTREET
Markets across the world are gaining, and U.S. stock futures are higher, after solid U.S. home sales data and a strong trading session in Asia.
Ahead of the opening bell, futures for the Dow Jones Industrials gained 69 points, or 0.4%, to 17,756, while futures for the S&P 500 put on 8.5 points, or 0.4%, to 2,083.50. NASDAQ futures added 21.75 points, or 0.5%, to 4,467.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise is up 11% pre-market, after announcing it will spin off its enterprise services unit late on Tuesday.
Monsanto gained nearly 2% in after hours trading Tuesday after it rejected Bayer's $62-billion U.S. takeover bid. Monsanto indicated it was open to a deal at a higher price.
Anheuser-Busch InBev is up 2% after the European Commission approved its plan to buy rival SABMiller for about £68 billion ($99 billion U.S.).
Tiffany & Co will report its earnings before the opening bell.
Costco, Guess? and HP are among the companies reporting after the market close
Oil prices picked up 42 cents to $49.04 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices slipped $2.34 to $1,224.87 U.S. an ounce.
