Futures pointed to a higher opening for Canada's main stock index on Thursday as commodity prices climbed to near five-month highs and oil held steady.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index leaped 95.14 points to conclude Wednesday at 15,244.74
September futures pointed up 0.2% early Thursday.
The Canadian dollar retreated 0.06 cents to 79.27 cents U.S.
Rogers Communications posted a 35% rise in second-quarter profit as it added more subscribers.
BlackBerry said on Thursday it has won the right to sell tools for encrypting phone calls and text messages to the U.S. federal government, garnering an endorsement from the National Security Agency for the products.
Canadian electric utility Hydro One Ltd said on Wednesday that it would buy rival Avista Corp for about $6.7 billion to expand into the U.S. Northwest.
Kinder Morgan Canada President Ian Anderson says little major construction will happen on the company’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion this year although construction remains on schedule to begin in September
RBC cut the rating on Advantage Oil & Gas to sector perform from outperform
CIBC raised the rating on Transat AT to neutral from underperform
On matters economic, Statistics Canada reported that 525,300 Canadians received regular Employment Insurance benefits, down 12,800, or 2.4%, from April.
The agency says this continues a downward trend that began in late autumn 2016, reflecting the relative strength observed in the economy.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange gained 2.24 points Wednesday to 765.95
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stock index futures pointed to a flat to slightly higher open on Thursday, as investors prepared to digest another batch of corporate earnings reports.
Ahead of the opening bell, futures for the Dow Jones Industrials erased six points to 21,590. Futures for the S&P 500 gained two points, or 0.1%, to 2,473.50. NASDAQ futures gained 10.25 points, or 0.2%, to 5,928.50
In earnings news, Bay, Microsoft and Visa are some of the major names set to report. Blackstone, Travelers, Philip Morris and Polaris are among the companies that reported earlier on Thursday.
Sticking with financial news, jobless claims and the Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey are both due out early this morning, while Leading Indicators index is slated to come out later.
On the central bank front, investors in Europe and the U.S. will be keeping a close eye on the European Central Bank on Thursday, as it announces its latest monetary policy decision.
The central bank is widely expected to hold fire on interest rates, however, President Mario Draghi's rhetoric and moves in the euro will be of key importance on Thursday, as investors look for hints as to where the ECB's strategy could be heading.
European markets were mostly in the green approaching noon Thursday, while the Nikkei 225 in Japan gained 0.6%. Shanghai’s CSI 300 jumped 0.5%.
Oil prices picked up 24 cents to $47.36 U.S. per barrel.
Gold prices faded $5.40 to $1,236.60 U.S. an ounce.
