Futures for stocks in Canada’s largest market were little changed on Thursday as investors digested a report on gross domestic product for January to gauge the health of the economy.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index stayed negative 46.24 points to end Wednesday at 15,169.94
The Canadian dollar gained 0.19 cents to 77.57 cents U.S. early Thursday
June futures were down 0.04% Thursday.
Markets throughout North America will be closed tomorrow for Good Friday
Dollarama reported an 11.4% rise in quarterly profit on Thursday, driven by an increase in comparable sales as shoppers spent more at its stores.
South Africa's Gold Fields will buy a near 50 percent share of Asanko Gold Inc's Ghana subsidiary and take a stake in the Canadian miner in a $202.6 million deal announced on Thursday.
RBC cut the target price on AGF Management to $7.50 from $8.00
In the economic docket, Statistics Canada reported that gross domestic product edged down 0.1% in January, offsetting part of the 0.2% growth in December. The decline was mainly the result of lower output of non-conventional oil extraction and decreased activity in real estate.
The agency also declared that its industrial product price index edged up 0.1% in February. Widespread price increases in the major commodity groups of the IPPI were largely offset by lower energy and petroleum product prices
StatsCan’s raw materials price index fell 0.3% due to lower prices for crude energy products.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange dropped 18.61 points, or 2.3%, Wednesday to 784.22
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stock index futures posted minor gains ahead of Thursday's open, as investors continued to watch the latest market moves coming from the technology space.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average raced ahead 56 points, or 0.2%, to 23,916
S&P 500 futures moved up 7.75 points, or 0.3%, to 2,615.25, while futures on the NASDAQ Composite gained 34.5 points, or 0.5%, to 6,511.75
Last week, reports emerged alleging that Cambridge Analytica, an analytics company, had gathered data from 50 million Facebook profiles without users' permission. While Facebook have since come out to apologize and try to rectify the matter, concerns remain over data use.
In the latest surrounding the debacle, Facebook unveiled new tools on Wednesday designed to make it easier for users to look at and access the data that the social media giant has on each user. The move is also an effort to regain trust with Facebook members, following the data scandal.
Shares of Amazon tumbled Wednesday after news emerged that President Donald Trump reportedly wanted to take on the e-commerce giant, in regards to its tax treatment.
The U.S. chief executive has claimed for a while that Amazon receives unfair tax treatment compared with brick-and-mortar retailers. On Wednesday, Axios reported, citing sources, that Trump was "obsessed" with Amazon and wanted to "go after" the group.
On Thursday's session, economic data is set to take center stage. At 8:30 a.m. ET, jobless claims were be published, along with personal income and outlays data. At 9:45 a.m. ET, Chicago purchasing managers' index (PMI) is slated to come out, followed by consumer sentiment figures at 10 a.m. ET.
Meanwhile, European indexes posted minor gains Thursday, while in Japan, the Nikkei 225 tallied 0.6%, while in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index added 0.3%.
Oil prices dropped 11 cents to $64.27 U.S. per barrel.
Gold prices lost a dollar to $1,329 U.S. an ounce.
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