Futures for Canada's commodity-heavy main stock index fell on Thursday as crude oil prices plunged, although the benchmark index was set for its best monthly performance in five.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index finished Wednesday negative 11.26 points to 22,075.96.
June futures faltered 0.3% Thursday.
The Canadian dollar dropped 0.25 cents to 79.85 cents U.S.
Shares in wealth manager Brewin Dolphin leapt 61% on Thursday after Royal Bank of Canada made a 1.6-billion-pound ($2.1 billion U.S.) all-cash offer for the firm, the latest in a string of wealth management acquisitions in Britain.
Suncor Energy said on Wednesday it had extinguished a fire at its 146,000-barrel-per-day Edmonton refinery that broke out in the morning and caused one injury.
Cowen and Company cut the target price on Air Canada to $29.00 from $32.00
RBC raised the target price on Dollarama to $79.00 from $77.00
National Bank of Canada resumed coverage on Petroshale with a sector perform rating, and a one-dollar price target.
On the economic slate, Statistics Canada reported real gross domestic product grew 0.2% in January, attributable to goods-producing industries.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange gained 7.33 points Wednesday to 885.52.
ON WALLSTREET
Stock futures were little changed in early morning trading Thursday as traders wrap up a month and quarter.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrials gave back 16 points, or 0.1%, to 35,101.
Futures for the S&P 500 eked higher 1.25 points to 4,587.25.
Futures for the NASDAQ Composite Index gained 40.5 points, or 0.3%, to 15,112.
The S&P 500 and NASDAQ are on pace to finish the month up about 5% each, while the Dow is nearly 4% higher in March.
For the first quarter, the Dow and S&P 500 are both down about 3% and the NASDAQ is off more than 7%.
Some tech stocks were under pressure Thursday amid analysts concerns over the PC market going forward. AMD shares slipped more than 1% in the premarket after analysts at Barclays downgraded the stock to equal weight from overweight.
Meanwhile, HP Inc subsided 3.8%, and Dell dipped 2%, after being downgraded to equal weight from overweight at Morgan Stanley.
Investors are awaiting weekly jobless claims and personal income and spending data to be released Thursday morning.
In Asia, the Nikkei 225 in Japan fell back 0.7%, while in Hong Kong, in contrast, the Hang Seng index let go of 1.1%.
Oil prices tumbled $6.17 to $101.65 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices dulled $3.70 to $1,935.30 U.S.
