Canadian stock futures fell on Thursday, mirroring the mood in global equities on downbeat earnings and ahead of key central bank meetings, with weakness in crude and gold prices denting sentiment further.
The S&P/TSX Composite collected 42.44 points Wednesday to 21,362.76.
The Canadian dollar fell 0.04 cents to 78.96 cents U.S.
March futures retreated 0.6% Thursday.
Suncor Energy said it swung to a quarterly profit from a year-ago loss, but its earnings missed expectations.
National Bank of Canada raised the target price on ATS Automation Tooling Systems to $66.00 from $64.00
CIBC raised the target price on CGI to $135.00 from $130.00
CIBC initiated coverage on Magnet Forensics with an outperform rating, and a target price of $33.00
Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem said on Wednesday there was uncertainty about how quickly inflation would come back down into the central bank's comfort zone, due to the unique nature of the COVID-19 pandemic.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange sank 7.67 points Wednesday to 865.05.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stock futures fell early Thursday, as traders pored through the latest batch of corporate earnings, which included disappointing numbers from tech giant Meta Platforms.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrials subsided 47 points, or 0.1%, to 35,445.
Futures for the S&P 500 fell 44.5 points, or 1%, to 4,532.50
Futures for the NASDAQ withered 321.5 points, or 2.1%, to 14,793.
Shares of Facebook-parent Meta Platforms plunged more than 22% in pre-market trading after the company’s quarterly profit fell short of expectations. The company also issued weaker-than-expected revenue guidance for the current quarter.
Other social media names, including Snap and Twitter, followed Facebook shares lower. Snap shares slid 15% pre-market, and Twitter dropped about 6%.
Spotify Technology, meanwhile, fell 9.6% pre-market after the company’s latest quarterly figures showed a slowdown in premium subscriber growth. Google-parent Alphabet, which gained 7.5% on Wednesday following blockbuster earnings, fell 1.4% pre-market Thursday. Amazon, which will report after the closing bell, fell 4% pre-market.
In early earnings news, Dow component Honeywell’s shares fell 3.1% after the company beat narrowly on profit but fell short on revenue and provided lower-than-expected guidance.
On the economic data front, investors will keep an eye out for the latest weekly U.S. jobless claims numbers released at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists polled by Dow Jones expect initial claims to have fallen to 245,000 from 260,000.
Those numbers will follow the release of surprisingly downbeat private payrolls data. ADP said Wednesday that U.S. private payrolls dropped by 301,000 in January, while economists polled by Dow Jones had forecast a gain of 200,000.
There also will be the four-quarter update on productivity at 8:30 a.m. and the Institute for Supply Management services index released at 10 a.m.
Overseas, in Japan, the Nikkei 225 gave back 1.1% Thursday, while markets in Hong Kong remained closed.
Oil prices parted with $1.03 to $87.23 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices lost $8.30 to $1,802.00 U.S. an ounce.
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