Growing concern over Spain’s banking crisis is rattling investor confidence on Wednesday. U.S. and Canadian stock market futures were down substantially ahead of the opening bell, suggesting that stocks will decline.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index finished Tuesday’s trading 43.15 points higher to 11,609.30.
Research In Motion shares dropped 6% in pre-market trading after the BlackBerry maker forecasted a quarterly operating loss, announced further job cuts and revealed it had hired J.P. Morgan and RBC Dominion Securities to help review licensing and partnership opportunities.
Statistics Canada said its Industrial Product Price Index (IPPI) for April was unchanged. Increases in chemical products (1.7%) and petroleum and coal products (0.4%) were offset by a decline in primary metal products (down 2.1%). Economists expected an increase of 0.1%, following a 0.2% rise in March.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange faded 15.67 points to 1,309.34. The Nasdaq Canada index squeezed out a gain of 0.82 points to 366.31.
The Canadian dollar traded this morning down 0.58 cents to 97.23 cents U.S.
ON WALLSTREET
Futures for the Dow Industrials were off 104 points, or 0.8% to 12,479, while futures for the S&P 500 were down 11.90 points, or 0.9%, to 1,321.50, about a half-hour before the bell. Nasdaq futures declined 18.50 points, or 0.7%%, to 2,541.
Facebook shares could come under more pressure after U.S. regulators sought additional documentation from the company regarding its proposed takeover of mobile photo sharing firm Instagram.
The yield on 10-year Spanish government bonds is rapidly approaching 7%, the critical level at which both Greece and Ireland required emergency bailouts.
The yield jumped almost 23 basis points to 6.69%, after the credit-rating firm Egan-Jones Ratings Co. downgraded Spanish debt. At the same time, rumours swirled that the European Central Bank had rejected Spain’s plans to recapitalize its fourth largest bank, Bankia SA.
Investors were also disheartened to see the results of the latest opinion poll out of Greece, which showed that the majority of voters want to renegotiate the conditions of the country’s bailout.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was down 1.9%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fell 0.3%.
London’s FTSE 100 index dipped 1.3%, while France’s CAC 40 fell 1%. Germany’s DAX index declined 0.7%. Spain’s IBEX 35 index was down 0.9%.
Oil for July delivery gave back 1.3% to $89.58 U.S. a barrel. Gold for June delivery was down 0.1% at $1,552.74 U.S. an ounce
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