Stock futures pointed to a higher opening for Canada's main stock index as gold steadied, post the U.S. Federal Reserve's rate hike
The S&P/TSX Composite gained 21.13 points to close Thursday at 15,218.31
The Canadian dollar faded 0.54 cents to 74.72 U.S. early Friday.
Barclays raised the target price on Athabasca Oil to $2.00 from $1.50, after the company announced the acquisition of Statoil’s thermal assets.
Barclays cut the target price, however, on Empire Company to $15.00 from $18.00, to reflect the company’s significant earnings shortfall and reduced the level of potential earnings.
On the economic beat, Statistics Canada reported that foreigners increased their holdings in Canadian instruments to $15.8 billion in October, most of them debt securities, while Canadians added $2.1 billion of foreign securities to their holdings, the lion’s share of them U.S. corporate instruments.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange plummeted 11.14 points, or 1.5%, Thursday to 730.39
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stock index futures pointed to a flat open on Friday 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 gained 37 points, or 0.2%, to 19,840. Futures for the S&P 500 recaptured 3.75 points, or 0.2%, to 2,262.25. NASDAQ futures added 9.5 points, or 0.2%, at 4,944.25
With triple-witching expiration in the U.S., traders are also watching to see if the Dow Jones can crack the psychologically important 20,000-point level.
Among figures, Friday will see housing starts and building permits released this morning.
European markets were also fairly flat by noon on the continent. Asian shares were mostly higher to end the week.
Oil prices moved up 20 cents to $51.10 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices gained $4.80 to $1,134.60 U.S. an ounce.
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