Stock futures pointed to a higher opening for Canada's main stock index on Thursday
The S&P/TSX composite index gained 38.55 points to close Wednesday at 15,657.63. Futures were traveling higher by 0.3%.
The Canadian dollar gained 0.13 cents to 91.98 cents U.S. early Thursday.
Manulife Financial Corp and Britain's Standard Life have agreed a near-$4-billion deal for the Canadian operations of the British insurer as part of a broader global tie-up.
WSP Global Inc said it would buy Balfour Beatty Plc's U.S. professional services division, Parsons Brinckerhoff, for an enterprise value of about $1.24 billion, to increase its footprint in the U.S. transportation segment.
National Bank Financial upped the price target on Alimentation Couche-Tard to $36 from $33
Canaccord Genuity raised the price target on Concordia Healthcare to $40 from $38
On the economic front, Statistics Canada reported that our merchandise exports increased 1.4% in July, while imports edged down 0.3%. As a result, Canada's trade surplus with the world widened from $1.8 billion in June to $2.6 billion in July.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange lost 1.35 points Wednesday to 1,009.53.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stock futures were barely budging from their Wednesday closing levels as investors wait for more details from the ECB. Any big moves in Europe could reverberate across global markets.
Ahead of the opening bell, futures for the Dow Jones Industrials added 35 points, or 0.2%, to 17,108. Futures for the S&P 500 gained six points, or 0.3%, to 2,004.75, and futures for the NASDAQ gained nine points, or 0.2%, to 4,080.75.
Motorola is holding a press conference in Chicago Thursday where it's widely expected to unveil a Moto 360 smartwatch ahead of Apple's iWatch.
Shares in Apple were declining by about 1% in premarket, after dropping by 4.2% over the previous session. Some investors appear to be nervous that the expected launch of its newest iPhone on September 9 could disappoint.
Get ready for shares in Yum! Brands to take a dive when markets open. The stock fell by as much as 4% in extended trading after the company, which owns KFC and Pizza Hut, said it expects a 13% drop in same-store quarterly sales. It blamed one of its suppliers in China that was found to be using tainted and expired meat.
Meanwhile, Yum Brands and other chains including McDonald's and Burger King will be dealing with worker protests Thursday across the U.S. This action is the latest in a two-year effort to get employers to pay workers a minimum wage of $15 U.S. an hour and allow them to form unions without retaliation.
The U.S. government will report weekly jobless claims this morning.
Meantime, all eyes were on the European Central Bank, which released its latest monetary policy decisions this morning. President Mario Draghi's indicated recently that the ECB could launch a Fed-style quantitative easing program soon to support Europe's stagnating economy and fend off deflation.
The Bank of England kept its interest rates unchanged, as did the Bank of Japan.
European markets were looking weak in early trading and Asian markets mostly closed in the red.
Oil prices docked 37 cents to $95.17 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices gained $3.30 to $1,273.50 U.S. an ounce.
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