Futures for Canada's main stock index fell on Tuesday, weighed down by weakness in commodity prices as bullion hit a more than two-week low, while crude prices declined after the Suez Canal was reopened to traffic.
The TSX fought to within 33.36 of breakeven to conclude the first day of a short week at 18,719.22.
The Canadian dollar lost 0.18 cents at 79.24 cents U.S.
June futures declined 0.1% Tuesday.
Canadian health officials said they would stop offering AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine to people aged under 55 and require a new analysis of the shot's benefits and risks based on age and gender.
A merger of Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications would result in sufficient market competition, their chief executives said on Monday, as a Canadian parliamentary committee grilled the firms' officials on anti-trust aspects of the deal.
TD Securities raised the target price on Advantage Oil & Gas to $3.25 from $2.50
TD Securities raised the target price on Boardwalk REIT to $48.00 from $47.00
CIBC raised the rating on Canadian Western Bank to outperform from neutral
On the economic docket, Statistics Canada reported that the total number of payroll employees in January was 1.2 million (or 7%) lower than in February 2020.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange faded 7.46 points Monday to 935.83.
ON WALLSTREET
S&P 500 futures dipped during early morning trading on Tuesday as a jump in bond yields prompted investors to dump high-flying tech shares.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrials lopped off two points to 33,030.
Futures for the S&P sank 9.75 points or 0.3%, to 3,949.25.
The NASDAQ Composite index docked 81 points, or 0.6%, to 12,863.50 Tuesday.
Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Netflix and Facebook all traded in the red in pre-market. Tesla fell more than 2%.
The move in futures came after the Dow closed at a record high in the previous session. The market experienced heightened volatility amid the continued fallout after a hedge fund was forced to liquidate its position in several media stocks.
ViacomCBS and Discovery both slid on Monday after registering heavy losses last week prompted by Archegos Capital Management selling large blocks of stock late last week.
Bank stocks also declined on Monday, with Credit Suisse and Nomura posting heavy losses after warning of “significant” hits to first-quarter results following the hedge fund’s selling.
Still, despite the recent volatility, the Dow and S&P 500 are firmly higher for the month, the Dow gaining 7.2% and the S&P vaulting 4.2%.
Overseas, in Japan, the Nikkei 225 gained 0.2% Tuesday, while in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng jumped 0.8%.
Oil prices were dragged down 95 cents to $60.61 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices retreated $25.70 to $1,688.50 U.S.
