Toronto's main stock index looked set to open higher on Thursday, buoyed by rising commodity prices and upbeat economic data.
The Canadian dollar surged 0.39 cents to 101.43 U.S. cents
Stocks to watch this morning include Bombardier Inc. The commercial plane maker reported a lower quarterly profit as it delivered less number of commercial and business aircraft partly due to a curtailed reporting period.
Research in Motion Ltd. is likely to pre-announce poor February quarter results and forecast a "very weak" May quarter on lower sales of its phones, according to Jefferies & Co analysts.
Constellation Software posted a 72% rise in quarterly profit, helped by acquisitions and higher sales at both its private and public sector businesses.
Oil and gas explorer Ithaca Energy Inc. said it had received unsolicited takeover offers from a number of parties.
Canadian investors will no doubt be combing through the latest batch of fiscal first-quarter bank earnings, which fell. Royal Bank of Canada’s earnings declined to $1.86 billion or $1.21 a share, down from $1.27 last year.
Toronto-Dominion Bank’s earnings shrank to $1.48 billion from $1.56 billion last year, but the bank boosted its dividend by four cents a share. Bank of Montreal kicked off the Big Banks’ earnings earlier this week with upbeat results.
U.S. index futures were modestly higher with about half an hour before markets open, suggesting that stocks will rise at the start of trading. Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average were up 35 points or 0.3% to 12,972. Futures for the broader S&P 500 were up 3.40 points or 0.3% to 1,367.80, while Nasdaq futures ahead 10.50 points, or 0.4%, to 2,633.50.
Both indexes fell on Wednesday after U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke did not indicate in Congressional testimony that another round of economic stimulus was on the table, an omission that also hammered the price of gold.
Meanwhile, there will be a lot of U.S. economic news to digest as well. The U.S. Labor Department will release weekly initial jobless claims before markets open, with economists expecting little change from last week, at 350,000 claims.
The ISM Manufacturing index for February will be released at 10 a.m. ET, with economists expecting it to nudge higher to a reading of 54.5 from 54.1
In Europe, the U.K.’s FTSE 100 was up 0.6% and Germany’s DAX index was up 0.7% in afternoon trading. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.2% in overnight trading.
On Thursday morning, though, gold had found some stability at $1,712 U.S. an ounce, relatively unchanged. Crude oil rose slightly, to $107.23 U.S. a barrel, up 0.2%
Related Stories
