Futures for Canada's main stock index fell on Thursday as slower rollouts of coronavirus vaccines dampened hopes of swift economic recovery and offset a slew of positive earnings updates.
The S&P/TSX Composite surrendered 117.94 points to finish Wednesday at 18,374.78.
The Canadian dollar gained 0.17 cents to 78.91 cents U.S.
March futures dipped 0.3% Wednesday.
Barrick Gold reported a quarterly adjusted profit on Thursday that more than doubled, helped by a jump in gold prices due to coronavirus-induced economic uncertainty.
Teck Resources on Thursday reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit, powered by a buoyant copper business on higher prices of the metal.
Canadian Tire reported a 13% rise in quarterly revenue on Thursday, helped by strong demand for kitchenware, tools and seasonal products during the COVID-19 pandemic.
On the economic front, Statistics Canada said its new housing price index rose at its fastest pace since October, increasing 0.7% nationally in January.
Canada's COVID-19 vaccination campaign started on the same day in December as the United States, but it now lags dozens of countries, including its southern neighbor, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is feeling the pressure.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange lost 3.78 points Wednesday to 1,084.35.
ON WALLSTREET
Stock futures moved slightly lower early Thursday morning ahead of the release of a key indicator for the job market.
Futures for the Dow Jones fell 91 points, or 0.3%, to 31,458.
Futures for the S&P 500 slipped 13.25 points, or 0.3%, at 3,914.75.
Futures for the NASDAQ Composite stumbled 98.25 points, or 0.7%, to 13,601.50.
Shares of Apple fell again in pre-market trading, down 1.5%. Apple shares are down 3% so far this week as investors take some profits in the Big Tech stocks that have led the market back to a record. Tesla was also lower in the pre-market, down more than 2%.
Walmart shares declined after its fourth-quarter earnings fell short of Wall Street estimates. Walmart was down 3% in pre-market trading.
The move in futures comes after a Wednesday session in which the broad market struggled to pick a clear direction. The Dow, buoyed by Chevron and Verizon, ticked slightly higher to set a new record, but the S&P 500 and NASDAQ Composite closed in negative territory.
Investors will get several new pieces of economic data on Thursday to gauge the pace of the U.S. recovery, including initial jobless claims.
Economists surveyed by Dow Jones are expecting 773,000 new claims, a slight decrease from the prior week. Housing and manufacturing data is also due out on Thursday morning.
Those economic readings come on the heels of big jumps for retail sales and producer prices in data released Wednesday.
Overseas, in Japan, however, the Nikkei 225 dipped 0.2%, while in Hong Kong stumbled 1.6%.
Oil prices took on 33 cents to $61.47 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices shone brighter $10.20 to $1,783. U.S.
