Stock futures pointed to a slightly lower opening for Canada’s main stock index on Friday as spot gold prices edged lower, led by a rise in the U.S. dollar.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index collapsed 90.75 points to end Thursday at 15,860.92
The Canadian dollar fell 0.38 cents to 81.19 cents U.S. Friday morning.
March futures dropped 0.07% Friday.
Motorola Solutions Inc said on Thursday it would buy Canadian security camera maker Avigilon Corp for $1.2 billion in cash. Still with Avigilon, Canaccord Genuity cut the rating on its stock to hold from buy
CIBC raised the price target on New Flyer Industries to $65 from $63
National Bank of Canada cut the price target on Saputo to $46.00 from $49.00
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange plummeted 20.64 points, or 2.4%, Thursday to 843.71
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks were on track to open sharply lower on Friday morning as investors took a more cautious approach as bond yields kept rising.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrials tumbled 235 points, or 0.9%, to 25,937
S&P 500 futures fell 16.5 points, or 0.6%, to 2,806, while futures on the NASDAQ Composite backpedaled 19.25 points, or 0.3%, at 6,879.25
The major U.S. stock indexes were also on track to finish the week lower. The Dow, S&P 500 and NASDAQ were on pace to snap four-week winning streaks.
In earnings, Exxon Mobil reported weaker-than-expected earnings on Friday. Tech giants Apple and Amazon reported quarterly results Thursday after the close. Both companies saw their stocks rise after releasing their results.
Shares of Google-parent Alphabet, meanwhile, fell 3.2% in the pre-market after its earnings missed expectations.
Jittery investors kept their eyes on the bond market and awaited a closely-watched monthly jobs report Friday morning. Non-farm payroll numbers improved 200,000, topping the expectation of 180,000 for January. The unemployment rate was 4.1%.
Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index faded 0.9%, and in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index inched back 0.1%.
Oil prices notched up 10 cents to $65.90 U.S. per barrel.
Gold prices acquired one dollar to $1,348.90 U.S. an ounce.
