Futures for Canada’s main stock index edged higher on Wednesday, a day after the index hit an over seven-week low, and immediately following data on Canada’s economy.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index docked 139.21 points to end Tuesday at 15,955.51
The Canadian dollar galloped 0.43 cents to 81.49 cents U.S. Wednesday morning.
March futures inched up 0.1% Wednesday.
U.S. private equity firm Blackstone Group LP catapulted itself into the major leagues of Wall Street’s financial information industry on Tuesday with the acquisition of a majority stake in the Financial and Risk business of Thomson Reuters Corp. National Bank cut the target price on the company’s stock to $60.00 from $68.00
CIBC cut the price target on Fairfax Financial Holdings to $700.00 from $725.00
RBC cut the target price on Loblaw Companies to $84.00 from $87.00
On the economic slate, Statistics Canada reported that gross domestic product increased 0.4% in November – in line with analyst expectations -- with widespread growth across industries as 17 of 20 industrial sectors increased.
Analysts will now look to see whether the details in the report are strong enough to get fourth-quarter growth to the 2.5% pace the Bank of Canada anticipates.
Elsewhere, the agency’s Industrial Product Price Index was found to have edged down 0.1% in December, mainly due to lower prices for energy and petroleum products and primary non-ferrous metal products. The Raw Materials Price Index decreased 0.9%, primarily due to lower prices for crude energy products.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange plunged 20.85 points, or 2.4%, to 858.33 Tuesday
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stock index futures bounced back ahead of Wednesday's open, as investors awaited the decision from the latest Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) monetary policy meeting.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrials surged 216 points, or 0.8%, to 26,271, with shares of Boeing contributing more than half of the gains. Boeing shares jumped 5.8%.
S&P 500 futures hiked 12.5 points, or 0.4%, to 2,837, while futures on the NASDAQ Composite gained 33.25 points, or 0.5%, at 6,974.75
The busiest week of the earnings season also continued. Eli Lilly, Anthem, and Boeing are among the latest companies to report. AT&T, eBay, Facebook, Microsoft, Mondelez International, PayPal, Qualcomm, and Symantec are some of the big names to release figures after the bell.
On Wednesday, earnings, data and the U.S. Federal Reserve are set to be at the front of investors' minds.
The FOMC is expected to conclude its latest two-day policy meeting. While the Federal Reserve isn't expected to make any changes to its policy stance, the meeting will mark the last time Janet Yellen will act as chair of the central bank, before the role is passed on to Jerome Powell. The FOMC's meeting announcement is set to come out at 2 p.m. ET.
A number of data releases are set to be published. At 9:45 a.m. ET, Chicago purchasing manager index (PMI) is due, followed by pending home sales data at 10 a.m. ET.
Earlier on Wednesday, ADP and Moody's Analytics said private companies added 234,000 jobs in January. Economists polled by Reuters expected a gain of 185,000. The report serves as a preview to the U.S. government's monthly jobs report, which is scheduled for release Friday at 8:30 a.m. ET.
Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index sagged 0.8%, and in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index moved forward 0.9%.
Oil prices lost 28 cents to $64.22 U.S. per barrel.
Gold prices jumped $5.20 to $1,345.20 U.S. an ounce.
