Futures tracking Canada's blue-chip stocks edged lower on Wednesday, as global risk sentiment was hurt by renewed U.S.-Iran hostilities, while investors awaited the Bank of Canada's rate decision due later in the day.
The TSX Composite Index was down 67.05 points to close Tuesday at 34,411.69.
June futures tailed off 0.6% Wednesday.
The Canadian dollar aimed higher 0.12 cents to 71.79 cents U.S.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they carried out missile and drone attacks on U.S. military bases in Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain on Wednesday in retaliation for American strikes on Iranian targets around the Strait of Hormuz.
As mentioned, the Bank of Canada is out this morning (about 9:45 a.m. EDT) with its interest rate decision. It’s assumed the central bank will leave the trendsetting rate at 2.25%.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange dropped 14.85 points, or 1.6%, Tuesday to 933.06.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stock futures fell Wednesday after President Donald Trump signaled that Iran negotiations were taking too long and threatened more action.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrials collapsed 449 points, or 0.9%, to 50,463.
Futures for the S&P 500 index gave back 67.5 points, or 0.4%, to 7,325.25.
Futures for the NASDAQ Composite dissolved 379.25 points, or 1.3%, to 29,737,75.
Trump wrote Wednesday morning that Iran has “taken too long to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them, now they will have to pay the price!!!.”
West Texas Intermediate crude futures were last up roughly 1.4%, trading around $89.37 a barrel.
Tensions in the Middle East ramped up again on Tuesday evening, after U.S. forces launched strikes against Iran “in response to yesterday’s downing of a U.S. Army Apache helicopter,” U.S. Central Command said.
Trump had earlier accused Iran of shooting down the helicopter, which he said was patrolling over the Strait of Hormuz.
Shares of Micron, AMD and Broadcom were lower in early trading with chip stocks now seeing losses in four of the last five sessions.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 fell 1.9% Wednesday, while in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng slid 0.6%.
Oil prices gained $1.27 to $89.47 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices withered $94.70 to $4,191.70 U.S an ounce.
