The Toronto stock market was set to open higher Thursday as commodity prices rose amid a strong start to the corporate earnings season and reassuring words on the economy from the U.S. Federal Reserve.
In Canadian earnings news, Corus Entertainment Inc. handed in a profit of $31.6 million or 38 cents a share for its second quarter, beating estimates by two cents. The Toronto-based television and radio company saw its revenue increase by 8% over the same time a year before to $205.7 million.
Score Media Inc. posted a loss of $1.3 million or two cents a share loss for its latest quarter as it increased spending on product development and efforts to win sales in the U.S. market. A year earlier, Score broke even with $225,000 of net income and $10.9 million of revenue.
In other corporate developments, Resolute Forest Products has acquired nearly half of the stock in Fibrek Inc. through a hostile takeover attempt. Formerly known as AbitibiBowater, Resolute acquired nearly 61 million Fibrek shares or 46.8% ownership of the pulp and fiber producer, by the offer's deadline of 11:59 p.m. Wednesday.
Resolute will pay $33.5 million in cash and 1.7 million of its own shares to acquire the Fibrek shares tendered by the April 11 deadline.
ON BAYSTREET
The S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 91.47 points to end Wednesday at 12,026.76.
The TSX Venture Exchange gained 4.02 points to 1,435.12, while the Nasdaq Canada index strengthened 5.69 points to 399.01
Rising prices for oil and copper helped push the Canadian dollar up 0.51 of a cent to 100.09 cents U.S.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. index futures were higher with more than two hours before markets open, suggesting that stocks will rise at the start of trading. Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average rose 26 points, or 0.2%, to 12,770. Futures for the broader S&P 500 rose 0.7 points to 1,364.70, while the Nasdaq futures hoisted four points, or 0.2%, to 2,708.25.
All three indexes had suffered lengthy losing streaks, including their worst one-day declines of the year on Tuesday, before snapping the downtrend on Wednesday, when investors reacted to better-than-expected quarterly earnings from Alcoa Inc. and declining bond yields in Spain and Italy.
European stocks seemed calm, though. Germany's DAX index rose 0.6% and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 fell just 0.1% in afternoon trading. In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 0.7% in overnight trading.
Commodities were mixed. Crude oil rose to $103.17 U.S. a barrel, up 0.5%. Gold fell to $1,658 U.S. an ounce, down 0.2%.
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