Stock futures pointed to a lower opening for Canada's main stock index on Friday on fears over an escalation in the trade conflict between the United States and China.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index listed lower by 36.63 points to finish Thursday at 16,100.94
The Canadian dollar gained 0.2 cents at 76.24 cents U.S. early Friday
September futures gave way 0.3% Friday
U.S. and Canadian negotiators pushed ahead in grinding talks to rescue the North American Free Trade Agreement on Thursday, but a few stubborn issues stood in the way of a deal, including dairy quotas, protection for Canadian media companies, and how to resolve future trade disputes.
Lundin Mining said on Thursday it does not plan to revise its hostile bid for fellow base-metal miner Nevsun Resources Ltd after it was trumped by a $1.86-billion offer from China's Zijin Mining Group.
TELUS Health is joining forces with London-based AI company Babylon to bring virtual medical services, including video consultations, to Canadians who do not have a family doctor or are in rural locations far from a surgery.
CIBC cut the target price on Maxar Technologies to $69 from $82.50
Canaccord Genuity cut the price target on Transcontinental Inc. to $28.00 from $29.00
On the economic beat, Statistics Canada reported that the economy lost 52,000 jobs in August, after two straight months of increases.
Part-time employment declined by 92,000 while full-time employment edged up.
At the same time, the unemployment rate increased 0.2 percentage points to 6.0%
Later this morning (10 a.m. ET) Western University’s IVEY School of Business is out with its Purchasing Managers Index for August.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange slid 3.59 points Thursday to 709.56
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stock index futures fell on Friday amid increasing trade fears as the prospects of striking deals with China appear to be fading. Investors also looked ahead to the release of monthly employment data.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrials slid 57 points, or 0.2%, to 25,968
S&P 500 futures dropped five points, or 0.2%, to 2,874, while futures for the NASDAQ composite retreated 18.75 points, or 0.3%, to 7,438.75
Companies such as Genesco and Tsakos Energy Navigation are reporting earnings Friday.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the possibility of the U.S. and China reaching a trade deal are fading as the Trump administration tries to revamp the North America Free Trade Agreement. Meanwhile, Bloomberg News reports that the U.S. and Canada will likely end the week with no trade deal in place.
At 8:30 a.m. ET, all eyes were on the latest batch of non-farm payrolls data, which aims to shed some light on how the U.S. economy and its labour market has been performing during the last month.
The U.S. economy is expected to have contributed an additional 191,000 jobs in August, according to economists— an uptick from July's figure of 157,000 jobs.
Overseas, in Japan, the Nikkei 225 slumped 0.8% while in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index dipped 1.35 points.
Oil prices eked up two cents to $67.79 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices acquired two dollars to $1,206.30 U.S. an ounce.
Related Stories
