Stock futures pointed to a lower opening for Canada's main stock index on Thursday, pulled lower by a sharp drop incommodity prices with gold falling to a near three-month low and Brent crude trading at a 17-month low below $98 U.S. a barrel.
The S&P/TSX composite index slipped 64.92 points to end Wednesday at 15,486.52, with futures off 0.2% Thursday.
The Canadian dollar dipped 0.60 cents to 90.83 cents U.S. early Thursday.
Yogawear chain Lululemon Athletica Inc reported on Thursday a better-than-expected quarterly profit, helped by higher online sales.
Empire Co Ltd, the operator of Canadian grocery chain Sobeys Inc, reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit.
Pembina Pipeline Corp, which operates a regional pipeline network in Western Canada, said on Wednesday it will boost the size of a planned $2-billion expansion, adding an additional 420,000 barrels per day of capacity to its system.
Credit Suisse cut the rating on National Bank of Canada to underperform from neutral.
RBC raised the target price on Shaw Communications to $27.00 from $26.00
On the economic slate, Statistics Canada’s new housing price index for July came in unchanged, following a 0.2% increase in June. The agency says monthly price increases in eight metropolitan areas offset decreases in seven areas, resulting in no change to the Canada level index.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange fell 4.69 points Wednesday to 984.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. markets were set to open lower Thursday morning.
Ahead of the opening bell, futures for the Dow Jones Industrials dove 64 points, or 0.4%, to 16,994. Futures for the S&P 500 dipped eight points, or 0.4%, to 1,987, and futures for the NASDAQ fell 12.75 points, or 0.3%, to 4,080.25
RadioShack, Lululemon, and Kroger are set to report quarterly earnings before the opening bell.
On the economic front, the U.S. Department of Labor was to post weekly jobless claims at 8:30 a.m. ET.
At 2 p.m., the U.S. Treasury will release its budget for August.
Across the sea, shares in the Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group were rising by about 1% in London after both banks said they were looking to move their bases from Scotland to England in the event that Scotland votes next week to break away from the United Kingdom.
The announcements were meant to reassure customers, shareholders and creditors worried about Scotland's uncertain future as an independent nation.
European markets were mostly flat in early trading.
Asian markets closed with some losses. The stand-out performer was the Nikkei 225 in Japan, which rose by 0.8% as the yen weakened.
Oil prices slumped $1.04 to $90.83 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices were down $1.10 to $1,244.30 U.S. an ounce.
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