The Toronto stock market was in for a negative start to the session Wednesday as commodity prices fell amid fears that Britain is slipping into recession and that negotiations on avoiding a Greek debt default had hit an impasse.
The Canadian dollar was down 0.39 of a cent to 98.63 cents U.S.
Shares in rival Research In Motion Ltd. were off 0.5% in pre-market trading in New York. RIM shares have tumbled 12% since announcing a management shakeup Sunday night that saw co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis step down.
Traders were unimpressed after the new CEO, Thorsten Heins, told analysts he didn’t think drastic change was needed at the BlackBerry maker.
In other corporate news, Wild Stream Exploration Inc. said it has struck an agreement to sell all issued and outstanding shares to Crescent Point Energy Corp. for about $770 million.
Wild Stream says each of its common shares will be exchanged for 0.17 common shares of Crescent Point, one share of a new light oil focused junior exploration company and 0.2 of a share purchase warrant, or new company warrants.
U.S. stock index futures were down within an hour of markets opening, suggesting that stocks will fall at the start of trading. Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average were down 41 points or 0.3%, to 12,585, putting it on track for a potential three straight days of losses.
Futures for the broader S&P 500 were down 5.40 points or 0.4%, to 1,306, while those for the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 14 points, or 0.6% to 2,451.50.
The setbacks suggest that Apple's quarterly results are having little impact on wider sentiment, even though Apple itself looked set for big gains. The shares were up 7.7% in premarket activity after the technology company reported a 73% jump in quarterly sales and earnings that more than doubled, to $13.87 U.S. a share.
The results, delivered after markets closed on Tuesday, provide some relief over concerns that competitors are chipping away at Apple's dominance of the tablet computer market.
Among other companies releasing their results: Boeing Co., Corning Inc. and Abbott Laboratories.
Meanwhile, investors will be focused on the Federal Reserve when it releases its latest monetary policy statement in the afternoon, along with a new concept for the central bank: a forecast for short-term interest rates over the next two years.
While no one is expecting any noises about raising rates from their current level of about 0%, observers will be keen to hear what the Fed has to say about the recent batch of upbeat U.S. economic news, including falling weekly jobless claims. The statement is due to be released a 12:30 pm ET, followed by a question and answer period with Fed chairman Ben Bernanke.
In Europe, stocks also fell on Wednesday. In early afternoon trading, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 and Germany's DAX index were down 0.6% each. There, Greece is hanging over investor sentiment, with private-sector creditors meeting in Paris to discuss how to move forward in talks with the Greek government.
A deal to take a loss on government bonds has been foundering recently, despite pressure from European finance ministers to reach an agreement.
In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 1.1% in overnight trading, with much of the region shuttered for the Lunar New Year holiday.
Crude oil slipped 0.7% to $98.22 U.S. a barrel
Gold fell 0.5% to $1,656 U.S. an ounce
Related Stories
