Stock futures pointed to a slightly lower opening for equity markets in Canada on Thursday, a day after the U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates and ahead of key central banks in Europe making their own rate announcements.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 22.56 points to finish Wednesday at 16,136.59.
The Canadian dollar slid 0.05 cents to 77.97 cents U.S. Thursday morning.
December futures faded 0.1% Thursday.
The European Central Bank and the Bank of England both kept benchmark rates on hold.
Cenovus Energy Inc said on Thursday it will cut an additional 15% of its workforce and lower operating expenses as new chief executive, Alex Pourbaix, works aggressively to cut costs and lower debt.
Bombardier Inc, in the middle of a five-year plan to turn around its ailing business, on Thursday forecast 2018 revenue that came in well short of analysts' estimates.
Nebraska's main anti-pipeline group is trying to rally opposition to the TransCanada Corp's Keystone XL project's recently approved route through the state, tracking down landowners it says were not given a voice in the regulatory process.
CIBC raised the rating on Element Fleet Management to outperform from neutral
National Bank of Canada resumes coverage on K Bro Linen with an outperform rating
Credit Suisse starts coverage on Stelco Holdings with an outperform rating and a $24.00 target
On the economic front, Statistics Canada revealed In October, new house prices in Canada rose 3.5% year over year, down from this year's largest increase of 3.9%. Vancouver, up 8.4%, and London, ahead 8.1%, had the largest 12-month increases among the surveyed municipal areas.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange eked up 0.86 points Wednesday to 798.57
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stock index futures are set for a positive open on Thursday, after sentiment was boosted by news that the Federal Reserve had hiked interest rates during its December policy meeting.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrials advanced 29 points, or 0.1%, to 24,675
S&P 500 futures gained two points, or 0.1%, to 2,671, while futures on the NASDAQ Composite index hiked 6.25 points, or 0.1%, to 6,423.50
On the earnings front, Scholastic, Adobe Systems, Costco and Oracleare some of the names set to publish financial figures.
Also in corporate news, Disney agreed to buy 21st Century Fox assets for more than $52 billion. The assets include Fox's movie studios, network Nat Geo, Asian pay-TV operator Star TV, stakes in Sky and Hulu and regional sports networks. Fox shares fell more than 2% in the pre-market, while Disney's stock declined 0.1%.
One of the more noteworthy actions that arose from the Federal Open Market Committee was that members had set a target for 2018's gross domestic product. Collectively, the group upgraded its GDP estimate to 2.5%, from 2.1% in September.
Both the Bank of England and European Central Bank also delivered monetary policy decisions on Thursday, keeping interest rates steady.
Elsewhere, a slew of economic data is set to be released during the day's trade. At 8:30 a.m. ET, jobless claims, retail sales and import & export price indexes were expected to be published. The Flash U.S. composite purchasing managers' index is due out at 9:45 a.m. ET, followed by manufacturing and trade inventories at 10 a.m. ET.
Overseas, European stocks slipped into the red toward noon local time, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 settled 0.3%. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index fell 0.2%
Oil prices slid 32 cents to $56.28 U.S. per barrel.
Gold prices gained $10.70 to $1,259.30 U.S. an ounce.
