Futures for Canada's main stock index fell on Thursday, tracking weakness in commodity prices as demand concerns hit crude futures and tapering talk from the U.S. central bank pressured gold.
The TSX came off its lows of the day, but still shed 90.02 points to close Wednesday at 19,417.03.
The Canadian dollar gained 0.12 cents Thursday to 82.55 cents U.S.
June futures declined 0.4% Thursday.
TD Securities raised the target price on Intertape Polymer Group to $38.00 from $35.00
Scotiabank raises target price on Royal Bank of Canada to $140.00 from $133.00
CIBC raised the target price on National Bank of Canada to $98 from $89
On the economic beat, Statistics Canada said new home prices increased 1.9% in April at the national level, with prices up in 22 of the 27 census metropolitan areas surveyed.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange ditched 11.54 points, or 1.2%, to 936.61.
ON WALLSTREET
Stock futures in New York were lower once again on Thursday as investors awaited weekly jobs data.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrials faltered 117 points, or 0.3%, to 33,714.
Futures for the S&P 500 lost eight points, or 0.2%, to 4,103.50.
Futures for the NASDAQ Composite index fell 4.25 points to 13,229.25.
Shares of Cisco led technology shares lower, dropping 5% in premarket trading after the data centre networking hardware maker issued weaker-than-expected earnings guidance for the current quarter.
Kohl’s and Petco’s earnings are set to be released before the bell on Thursday.
Investors are awaiting the latest number of U.S. weekly jobless claims to gauge the pace of labour-market recovery. New claims for unemployment benefits are expected to total 452,000 for the week ended May 15, slightly lower than 473,000 in the week prior, according to economists polled by Dow Jones.
The move in futures followed a roller-coaster session on Wall Street triggered by a sudden drop in bitcoin, which led to a sharp sell-off in many speculative areas of the market. Cryptocurrency-linked shares, including Tesla, Coinbase and MicroStrategy led the market decline as bitcoin tanked as much as 30% at one point Wednesday.
On Wednesday, investors also digested the Federal Reserve’s minutes from April that hinted at considering tapering its asset purchase programs in upcoming meetings.
Overseas, in Japan, the Nikkei 225 regained 0.2%, while in Hong Kong, markets resumed trading with a loss of 0.5%.
Oil prices slid 67 cents to $62.69 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices moved lower $8.80 to $1,872.70 U.S.
Dow Set to Fall for 4th Straight Day
