Canada's main stock index looked set to open lower on Thursday as comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke raised fears the U.S. central bank would end its bond-buying program sooner-than-expected.
The S&P/TSX composite index gained but 10.07 points to finish Wednesday at 12,752.50. Futures Thursday were off 0.8%.
The Canadian dollar eked up 0.02 cents to 96.65 cents U.S. early Thursday.
Toronto-Dominion Bank quarterly profit rose 2%, driven by stronger wholesale banking income.
European Union antitrust regulators accepted concessions from Lufthansa, United Airlines, Air Canada and Continental to ease competition concerns about their transatlantic revenue-sharing pact.
To another mode of transport, Canadian Pacific Railway announced it will become a "more aggressive" buyer of short-line regional railroads as it improves its financial performance and operating efficiency
On the economic slate this morning, Statistics Canada reported that those of us on employment insurance decreased 5,200, or 1%, in March to 523,700. It was the fifth straight drop. StatsCan also says compared with a year earlier, the number of beneficiaries was down 8.1%.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange hung onto gains of 2.67 points to 942.08 Wednesday
ON WALLSTREET
It looks to be a rough day on markets the world over, following in the trail of Asia and Europe.
Futures for the Dow Industrials dropped 121 points, or 0.8%, to 15,199. Futures for the S&P 500 fell 15 points, or 0.9%, to 1,640.60, and futures for the NASDAQ swooned 28 points, or 0.9%, to 2,973.
Investors were spooked by worse-than-expected Chinese data that showed manufacturing slowed for the first time in seven months, and the latest minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting.
U.S. stocks had rallied early Wednesday after Fed chairman Ben Bernanke told lawmakers that withdrawing monetary stimulus prematurely could derail the economic recovery.
But markets went into reverse after the Fed's minutes showed that some members were willing to dial down the Fed's bond-buying program as soon as June if the recovery appears sustainable.
Investors head into Thursday awaiting data on initial jobless claims, and a report on new home sales at 10 a.m. ET.
On the corporate front, Ralph Lauren is set to report quarterly results in the morning, while Gap and Sears Holdings are up after the bell.
Shares of Hewlett-Packard surged about 12% in pre-market trading after the PC-maker reported quarterly earnings that beat estimates.
Shares of Tesla slumped nearly 3%, a day after the electric car maker announced that it had repaid a $465-million U.S. loan from the government nearly a decade before it was scheduled to do so.
World markets tumbled Thursday, led by Japan’s Nikkei 225, which sank 7.3%. Other markets quickly followed suit. European markets were all down about 2%, while Asian markets ended the day with sharp losses.
Oil prices settled 97 cents to $93.31 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices spiked $23.50 to $1,390.90 U.S.
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