Stock futures pointed to a higher opening for Canada's main stock index a day after the U.S. Federal Reserve hiked interest rates and signaled a faster pace of increases in 2017.
The S&P/TSX Composite dropped 188.09 points, or 1.2%, to close Wednesday at 15,197.18
The Canadian dollar collapsed 1.2 cents to 74.97 U.S. early Thursday.
Statoil has agreed to sell its Canadian oil sands assets to Athabasca Oil in a deal worth up to $832 million. The transaction covers the 24,000-barrel-per-day Leismer oil sands plant in northern Alberta, the undeveloped Corner oil sands project and a number of midstream contracts associated with Leismer production.
Bombardier Inc said on Wednesday growth in the rail business and the ramp up of the C Series aircraft program should help boost full-year consolidated revenue in 2017 by a low single digit percentage. For 2017, the company is targeting consolidated earnings before interest and taxes before special items in the range of $530 million to $630 million.
Canadian Natural Resources said that it expected production to rise by 6% and set its 2017 capital budget at $3.89 billion, a slight increase from last year.
Canaccord Genuity cut the target price on Merus Labs International to $3.00 from $3.50, to reflect the company’s disappointing guidance for next year.
Morgan Stanley cut the rating on Valeant Pharmaceuticals International to equal-weight from overweight, to reflect lack of expected business stabilization and material divestitures.
RBC raised the target price on Vermilion Energy to $56.00 from $53.00, considering the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ agreement to cut output levels to push prices higher.
On the economic beat, Statistics Canada reported manufacturing sales tailed off 0.8% to $51.0 billion in October, following two consecutive monthly gains. The agency attributes the largest decreases to the primary metal, petroleum and coal product, and machinery industries
The Canadian Real Estate Association reported that national home sales fell 5.3% from October to November. Actual (not seasonally-adjusted) activity remained 1.6% above levels in November 2015.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange swooned 11.07 points, or 1.5%, Wednesday to 741.53
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Thursday as traders continued to digest the Federal Reserve's decision to raise interest rates.
Ahead of the opening bell, futures for the Dow Jones Industrials faded seven points to 19,758. Futures for the S&P 500 fell 3.3 points, or 0.1%, to 2,248.75. NASDAQ futures skidded 13.25 points, or 0.3%, at 4,919.25
On the earnings front, Oracle and Adobe Systems are expected to report after the bell.
On things economic, initial jobless claims, Consumer Price Index and the Philadelphia Fed survey are to be released this morning, likewise Markit manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index, with NAHB homebuilder sentiment set to come out later on.
European stocks are marginally higher by noon on the continent, while Asia was almost uniformly lower, though Japan crept 0.1% higher.
Wednesday saw the Fed raise its short-term target rate by 25 basis points in its second rate hike in a decade. The Fed also surprised markets with a forecast that showed it could raise rates three times next year, instead of two.
Oil prices moved lower 0.14 cents to $50.90 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices faded $34.80 to $1,128.90 U.S. an ounce.
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