Markets in Toronto looked set to open higher on Thursday, as Asian economies showed signs of recovery.
The S&P/TSX composite gained 45.86 points to closed Wednesday 12,422.91. Futures hiked 0.3%.
The Canadian dollar nipped up 0.04 cents to 100.04 cents U.S. Thursday
Barrick Gold reported a huge drop in third-quarter profit due to lower sales volumes and lower realized gold prices.
Husky Energy Inc, the integrated oil company, reported lower quarterly production as planned maintenance work at its SeaRose and Terra Nova projects impacted output.
BCE Inc reported lower third-quarter profit compared with a year earlier, when lower income tax expenses had boosted earnings, but revenue rose.
Pharmacy benefit manager Catamaran Corp raised its earnings forecast for the year after completing its $4.4-billion acquisition of rival Catalyst Health Solutions, which will help it benefit from the new U.S. health-care law.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange gathered 11.56 points Wednesday to 1,314.48
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stock futures barely budged Thursday morning as Wall Street continues to recover from the two-day suspension of trading by Superstorm Sandy.
The Dow Jones Industrials futures gained 20 points, or 0.2%, to 13,050, while S&P 500 futures gained 1.20 points, or 0.1%, to 1,408, and futures for the tech-rich Nasdaq advanced 8.5 points, or 0.3%, to 2,649.
Ahead of the opening bell, investors had a slew of corporate and economic news to parse through.
Those morning reports included planned job cuts, private sector jobs and initial unemployment claims, in a prelude to the government's monthly jobs on Friday.
First, outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported the number of planned job cuts surged to a five-month high of 47,724 in October. That was a 41% increase over the prior month.
Payroll processor ADP reported U.S. private-sector employers added 158,000 jobs in October. That topped the 143,000 prediction from analysts polled by Briefing.com. Weekly initial jobless claims fell by 9,000 to 363.000 last week. That came in lower than the 375,000 filings expected.
The other reports on tap for Thursday span a wide variety of economic sectors: manufacturing, consumer confidence, construction spending and auto sales.
European stocks all ticked slightly higher in midday trade Thursday. Britain's FTSE 100 was up about 0.6%, while the DAX in Germany and France's CAC 40 each added 0.5%.
Asian markets closed higher. The Shanghai Composite had the strongest gains, up 1.7%, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong jumped 0.8%, and Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 0.2%.
China's government reported earlier in the day that its official purchasing managers’ index to 50.2 in October, from 49.8 the previous month. Any reading above 50 indicates that factory conditions are improving in the manufacturing sector.
Oil for December delivery rose four cents to trade at $86.28 U.S. a barrel.
Gold futures for December delivery jumped $3.60 to $1,722.70 U.S. an ounce.
Related Stories
