Stock market futures are up in the U.S. and Canada and European bourses have risen on Thursday, as investors take an optimistic look at the latest round of economic reports.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index gave back 176.04 points, or 1.5%, to finish Wednesday at 11,433.26.
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce beat analyst expectations, reporting quarterly revenue growth of 2% and a rise in profit of 6%.
CGI Group Inc. said it has agreed to buy Anglo-Dutch IT services company Logica for $2.6 billion in a deal to secure more business with blue-chip clients globally. The price reflects a 60% premium to Logica’s last closing share price.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange docked 19.91 points to 1,289.43. The Nasdaq Canada index declined 10.58 points to 355.77
The Canadian dollar traded this morning down 0.07 cents to 97.02 cents U.S.
ON WALLSTREET
Things looked on the cheery side south of the border, amid GDP numbers due out later this morning.
Futures for the Dow Industrials were up 62 points, or 0.5% to 12,443, while futures for the S&P 500 were up 0.5 points to 1,309.10, about a half-hour before the bell. Nasdaq futures inched up 1.25 points to 2,532.
The preliminary report on U.S. first-quarter GDP is expected to show expansion slowed to 1.9% down from 3% in the fourth quarter of last year. Advanced figures release in April suggested that first-quarter GDP had actually risen by 2.2%. The final figures don’t get released until June 28.
Economic news out of Europe pleased the markets, with the latest data showing inflation has fallen to 2.4% and that German retail sales rose last month. At the same time, a poll of Irish voters showed that the country is ready to vote today in favour of tough fiscal measures to ease the euro-zone debt crisis.
Asian markets charted a different course on Thursday. During May they have registered the biggest monthly drop since 2008, Bloomberg reports.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index erased 0.3%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 index was down 1.1%.
London’s FTSE 100 index gained 1%. France’s CAC 40 prospered 0.7%. Germany’s DAX index was up 0.4%, with Spain’s IBEX 35 index up 0.5%.
Oil was up 88 cents U.S. at $88 a barrel
Gold was down 0.1% at $1,563.71 U.S. an ounce
Related Stories
