Stock futures pointed to a lower opening for markets in Canada on Thursday as oil prices continued to fall and investors remained concerned about U.S. economic growth despite a widely expected interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index plummeted 209.62 points, or 1.4%, to close Wednesday at 15,170.13, its lowest close in six months as energy stocks were hit by a sharp retreat in the price of oil and loyalty program company Aimia fell sharply after suspending dividend payments.
June futures dropped 0.5% early Thursday.
The Canadian dollar let go of 0.29 cents to 75.26 cents U.S. early Thursday.
Home Capital Group has reportedly agreed on a settlement with the Ontario Securities Commission and accepted responsibility for misleading investors about problems with its mortgage underwriting procedures.
Kinder Morgan Canada welcomes investment from the country's aboriginals so that they have a stake in its Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, as the company braces for major obstacles for the project.
Canaccord Genuity cut the rating on Eldorado Gold to speculative buy rating from buy
CIBC raised the target price on TransCanada Corp. to $70.00 from $68.00
Barclays raises target price on North West Company to $33.00 from $31.00
On the economic slate, Statistics Canada reported that manufacturing sales rose 1.1% to a record high $54.4 billion in April, mainly due to higher sales in the petroleum and coal product, and primary metal industries.
Meanwhile, the Canadian Real Estate Association was due out this morning with statistics for multiple listing sales of homes in Canada in May.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange collapsed 6.24 points Wednesday to 779.30
ON WALLSTREET
Large-cap technology stocks fell Thursday, dragging NASDAQ futures lower.
Ahead of the opening bell, futures for the Dow Jones Industrials dropped 96 points, or 0.5%, to 21,231. Futures for the S&P 500 fell 16.75 points, or 0.7%, to 2,418.50. NASDAQ futures diminished 63.75 points, or 1.1%, to 5,669
Shares of Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Neftlix and Google-parent Alphabet all dropped more than 1% before the bell.
Analysts at Canaccord Genuity downgraded Alphabet's stock to hold from buy, noting they believe the ad load increases on mobile search and YouTube from the past two years will be "be hard to repeat."
Technology has been on a tear this year, with the S&P tech sector rising about 18% to easily outperform other industries. Even so, this year's best-performing sector has been under pressure recently amid growing valuation concerns. Earlier this week, the sector completed its largest two-day decline since December.
Tesla shares were also lower in the pre-market.
The Fed raised interest rates Wednesday for the second time in 2017 and said it plans to start unwinding its monster $4.5-trillion balance sheet this year.
European markets dropped off more than 1% as of noon on the continent, while, in Asia, the Nikkei 225 in Japan sank 0.3%, while Shanghai’s CSI 300 surrendered 0.2%
Oil prices erased 30 cents to $44.43 U.S. per barrel.
Gold prices shed $19.00 to $1,256.90 U.S. an ounce.
