Futures for Canada's main stock slid on Friday, ahead of the release of the country's economic growth data later in the session.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index fought its way into positive country Thursday, gaining 4.63 points to end the day at 16,299.29.
September futures retreated 0.3% Friday.
The Canadian dollar dipped 0.04 cents Friday to 74.50 cents U.S.
Air Canada reported a loss for the second quarter on Friday, hit by a plunge in passenger numbers as coronavirus-driven travel restrictions slammed demand
CIBC raised the target price on Intact Financial to $155.00 from $140.00
RBC cut the rating on Lundin Mining to sector perform from outperform
ATB Capital Markets raised the rating on Tervita Corp. to outperform from sector perform.
On the economic calendar, Statistics Canada reports gross domestic product figures grew 4.5% in May, following two months of unprecedented declines, as 17 of 20 industrial sectors increased.
Moreover, building permits for June hiked 6.2% to $8.1 billion in June, to a level comparable to pre-COVID levels. Overall, seven provinces reported gains for the month.
The agency’s industrial product price index rose 0.4% in June, driven mainly by higher prices for energy and petroleum products, while its raw materials price index increased 7.5% last month, primarily as a result of higher prices for crude energy products.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange dipped 5.4 points Thursday to 705.74.
ON WALLSTREET
Stock futures were barely higher early Friday even after some of the biggest tech companies and market leaders- Facebook, Amazon, Alphabet and Apple — reported better-than-expected quarterly results.
Futures for Dow Jones Industrials gained 60 points, or 0.2%, early Friday, to 26,278.
Futures for the S&P 500 gathered 11.25 points, or 0.4%, at 3,260.
Futures for the NASDAQ hiked 130.75 points, or 1.2%, to 10,924.75.
Emergency unemployment benefits are set to expire Friday and Congress and the White House still seem far apart on an agreement.
Stocks linked to an economic recovery like banks and retailers were lower in pre-market trading Friday as investors asses the biggest quarterly gross domestic product contraction on record and persistently weak job growth. Bank of America and Home Depot were lower in premarket trading.
Dow-component Chevron fell more than 2% in pre-market trading after the oil giant reported an $8.3 billion loss in the second quarter as the pandemic "significantly reduced demand."
Apple shares gained 6% in pre-market trading. The company reported a blowout quarter, with overall sales expanding by 11%. Apple also announced a four-for-one stock split.
Amazon, meanwhile, traded 5.4% higher as the company saw its sales skyrocket during the coronavirus pandemic. Facebook shares rallied more than 6% in premarket trading as the social media giant posted revenue growth of 11% even amid the coronavirus pandemic slowdown. The company also issued stronger-than-expected sales guidance for the current quarter.
Google-parent Alphabet also posted better-than-expected results. The stock’s performance was muted relative to the other Big Tech names as the company’s overall revenue decline in its history. Revenues for Google Cloud were also just below analyst expectations.
Collectively the four stocks were set to add about $200 billion to their total market cap, bringing it to more than $5 trillion.
Overseas, in Japan, the Nikkei 225 tumbled 2.8% while in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index fell 0.5%.
Oil prices grew 43 cents to $40.35 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices popped $28.40 to $1,946.50.
