Stock futures pointed to a lower opening for Canada's main stock index as crude oil continued their slow retreat from 2016 highs hit earlier this week.
The S&P/TSX Composite lost 73.08 points to close Thursday at 14,240.02
The Canadian dollar slipped 0.16 cents to 78.45 cents early Friday
Hudson's Bay reported better-than expected quarterly sales as it benefited from its expansion in Europe and the acquisition of online retailer Gilt. The company's net loss widened to $97 million, or 53 cents per share, in the first quarter from $49 million, or 27 cents per share, a year earlier. Retail sales rose to $3.30 billion for the three months ended April 30 from $2.07 billion.
Canadian Natural Resources said it and Cenovus Energy restarted operations at two oil sands facilities in the Wabasca region of northern Alberta on Thursday after a wildfire threat dissipated. Cenovus said it was in the process of restarting production at its 23,000 -barrel-per-day project on Thursday after it evacuated all 118 workers and shut down production two days prior.
TransCanada Corp will conduct two separate 24-hour outages on its 590,000-barrel-per-day Keystone crude oil pipeline in July upstream of Steele City, Nebraska. Last month, the company said it would conduct proactive maintenance on its pipeline, which will require it to replace sections of the line ranging from nine to 40 feet in length.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International will pay $54 million U.S. to settle civil charges that its Salix unit paid illegal kickbacks to induce doctors to prescribe seven of its products, causing the submission of thousands of fraudulent reimbursement claims to the U.S. government.
Barclays cut the price target on North West Company to $28 from $29 as risks may force the company to take a conservative approach to dividend growth this year.
CIBC cut the target price on Transat to $7.75 from $8.00, based on the impact of increasing competition in to the sun markets on the company’s winter results.
On the economic beat, Statistics Canada reported that the economy created 14,000 jobs during May. With fewer people searching for work, the unemployment rate declined 0.2 percentage points to 6.9%, the lowest rate since last July.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange marched ahead 8.8 points, or 1.2%, Friday to 720.17
ON WALLSTREET
Futures are plunging on what looks a fearful Friday.
Ahead of the opening bell, futures for the Dow Jones Industrials fell 95 points, or 0.5%, to 17,787, while futures for the S&P 500 slipped 12.75 points, or 0.6%, to 2,092.50. NASDAQ futures subsided 31.75 points, or 0.7% to 4,472.75.
Bank of America shares are down about 1% pre-market after a court in New York ordered the bank to disclose information related to its 2008 merger with Countrywide Financial.
Tesla is also trading lower pre-market. Federal regulators are looking into reports of a flaw in some Tesla models that could cause the driver to lose control of the car. Tesla issued a statement saying there is no safety defect with the suspension in either the Model S or Model X.
H & R Block gained more than 7% during extended trading hours after posting better-than-expected earnings.
But Urban Outfitters stock dropped 6% after the retailer said sales are declining this quarter.
The closely watched University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index will be published at 10 a.m. ET.
European markets are lower in early trading, with Germany's DAX down 1.7% and the FTSE 100 down 1.3%. Asian markets ended the session down. Markets in China were closed for a holiday.
Oil prices faded 64 cents to $49.92 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices dropped 85 cents to $1,268.95 U.S. an ounce.
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