Stock futures were little changed for Canada's main stock index on Friday as investors digested key economic data.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index added 50.95 points to finish Thursday at 15,423.09. June futures nicked up 0.02% early Friday.
The Canadian dollar dropped 0.01 cents to 74 cents U.S. early Friday.
Encana Corp said it would sell its Piceance natural gas assets in northwestern Colorado to privately held Caerus Oil and Gas LLC for $735 million.
Britain's largest energy supplier, Centrica Plc, said it would sell its 60% stake in its Canadian oil and gas exploration and production joint venture to a consortium for about 240 million pounds ($305 million U.S).
Hudson's Bay Co said on Thursday it would cut about 2,000 jobs across North America in a major restructuring effort as it reported a bigger-than-expected first-quarter loss.
BMO raised the target price on Transcontinental Inc. to $25.00 from $22.00
TD Securities raised the price target on Transat AT to $7.00 from $5.00
National Bank of Canada raised the price target on ECN Capital to $5.00 from $4.75 with an outperform rating.
On the economic ledger, Statistics Canada reported that the economy created 55,000 jobs in May, but noticing an increase of 0.1 percentage points in the unemployment rate to 6.6%, the result of more people participating in the labour market.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange gave back 1.57 points Thursday to 791.31
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Friday, following results of the U.K. election, with Theresa May's Conservative party losing its outright majority in parliament.
Ahead of the opening bell, futures for the Dow Jones Industrials took on 28 points, or 0.1%, to 21,162. Futures for the S&P 500 improved 2.75 points, or 0.1%, to 2,433. NASDAQ futures gained 3.5 points, or 0.1%, to 5,896.50
Earnings will be announced today by Ferrellgas Partners L.P. In data news, wholesale trade is slated to come out at 10 a.m. ET.
With May having called for an election earlier this year, her party, the Conservatives, had expected to strengthen their hand in the June 8 election, but have ended up losing a number of seats in parliament, meaning the election has shown no clear majority.
Since no party secured an outright majority, Britain is facing a hung parliament. That means multiple parties have to work together to hammer out a coalition government. This can also delay, or hurt, upcoming Brexit negotiations, as well as affect May's political future.
On Thursday, U.S. markets closed mostly higher as Wall Street digested the former FBI Director James Comey's testimony. Investors had been paying close attention to the testimony, to see if Comey's remarks would be damaging for U.S. President Donald Trump.
In his testimony, Comey said he kept records of his conversations with Trump — something he did not do when Barack Obama was president — because he thought Trump might "lie."
European markets were posting solid gains as of noon on the continent, while, in Asia, the Nikkei 225 in Japan vaulted 0.5%, while
Shanghai’s CSI 300 grew 0.4%
Oil prices lost nine cents to $45.55 U.S. per barrel.
Gold prices dipped $3.60 to $1,275.90 U.S. an ounce.
