Stock markets in Toronto looked set to open higher on Monday, buoyed by rising commodities as U.S. oil prices extended gains and gold jumped to a one-month high, breaking above $1,300 U.S. an ounce.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index added 56.28 points to end Friday at 12,685.13. Futures gained 0.2%.
The Canadian dollar progressed 0.22 cents to 96.70 cents U.S. early Monday
Zambia has allowed First Quantum Minerals to restart construction of its Sentinel copper project that had been halted this year on environmental concerns, according to a document obtained by Reuters.
Intact Financial Corp. said a train crash in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, and hail storms in July will cost it $134 million in its third-quarter results.
Canaccord Genuity cut the rating on ARC Resources Ltd. to hold from buy, expecting second-quarter production to slightly decline quarter over quarter given downtime associated with spring breakup and planned maintenance activities.
Canaccord Genuity cut the rating on Peyto Exploration & Development Corp. to hold from buy, believing second-quarter results will be fairly uneventful given the limited operational newsflow expected by August 13. The rating agency also does not envision any changes to Peyto's current 2013 production or capital spending guidance within its second-quarter earnings release.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange grew 5.82 points Friday to 920.39
ON WALLSTREET
Investors are readying themselves for this week's deluge of earnings announcements.
Futures for the Dow Industrials added eight points to 15,514. Futures for the S&P 500 scaled back 0.4 points to 1,689.10, and futures for the NASDAQ tacked on 5.25 points, or 0.2%, to 3,045.75
McDonald's reported earnings and sales that fell short of forecasts. Same-store sales, a key metric of economic health, edged up 1%..
Halliburton reported a increase in quarterly profit and a revenue record, driven in part by drilling in Angola, Russia and the North Sea.
Kimberly-Clark producer of Kleenex, Huggies, Kotex, Depends and Scott products, reported an increase in quarterly profit but sales were flat.
Netflix's report is due after the close.
Several major tech companies will report quarterly results later this week, including Apple, Facebook and Amazon.
The financial performance of these companies always garners a lot of attention.
But investors are even more keenly awaiting them this time, since they come on the heels of poor earnings from Google and Microsoft.
UBS agreed to pay about $745 million U.S. to settle a case with the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency over improperly selling mortgage-backed securities to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the U.S.
In economic news, the National Association of Realtors will publish data on existing home sales at 10 a.m. ET.
In Europe, the major indexes were mixed in midday trading.
Asian markets ended with mixed results. Japan's Nikkei 225 advanced by 0.5% after voters rewarded the architects of Abenomics with a sweeping electoral victory.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index also edged up by 0.3% while the Shanghai Composite index declined by 0.9%.
Oil prices gained 39 cents to $108.44 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices grew $24.40 to $1,317 U.S. an ounce.
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