Canada's main stock index futures pointed to a higher open as oil rallied for the second day in a row, rising above $30.00 in its largest weekly rally in three months.
The S&P/TSX composite index advanced 192.75 points, or 1.6%, to close Thursday at 12,035.86
The Canadian dollar moved ahead 0.51 cents to 70.6 cents U.S. early Friday.
Barrick Gold said it expects to take charges of up to $3 billion following an annual accounting impairment review. The company said it may have to take a goodwill impairment charge of about $1.8 billion, and asset impairment charges of $1.0-$1.2 billion, based on its preliminary analysis.
The suspension of production at an eastern Canadian mine may lead Potash Corp of Saskatchewan to shelve plans to build a new West Coast shipping terminal with partners Mosaic Co and Agrium Inc.
UBS cut the target price on Canadian Pacific Railway to $178.00 from $204.00 after the management made a surprising U-turn to a much more cautious view on whether they would move forward in their pursuit of a combination with NSC
On the economic beat, Statistics Canada reported that Canada’s Consumer Price Index rose 1.6% in the 12 months to December, after increasing 1.4% in November. On a seasonally-adjusted monthly basis, inflation advanced 0.1% in December, after increasing 0.2% in November.
The agency also reported that following flat sales in October, retail sales rose 1.7% in November to $44.3 billion. The agency attributes much of the gain to higher sales at new car dealers. With the exception of gasoline stations, all subsectors showed an increase in sales, representing 90% of retail trade.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange regained 1.31 points Thursday to 475.05.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stock futures are indicating a higher open.
Ahead of the opening bell, futures for the Dow Jones Industrials hiked 205 points, or 1.3%, to 15,992, futures for the S&P 500 moved up 27 points, or 1.5%, to 1,888. NASDAQ futures advanced 76.5 points, or 1.9%, to 4,206.75
Starbucks is down 3% in pre-market trading on the back of disappointing revenue numbers released on Thursday. Chip makerXilinx jumped 9% in pre-market trading on talk it might be a takeover target after unveiling stellar results.
Before the opening bell, GE, Legg Mason, Sotheby's, Citizens Financial and Sun Trust will report earnings.
Wall Street will be watching for new data on existing home sales for December, which come out at 10 a.m. ET.
European markets are up by more than 2% in early trading, led by shares in London and Paris. Asian markets were buoyed by the Nikkei which jumped 5.8%. The Hang Seng closed up 2.9% while shares in Shanghai closed 1.2% higher.
Oil prices took on $1.53 to $31.06 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices fell $4.89 to $1,096.31 U.S. an ounce.
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