Futures for Canada's resource-heavy stock index fell on Friday, as investors took cues from lackluster gold and crude prices, while tepid performances in Wall Street amid a mixed bag of earnings reports also weighed.
The TSX fell 50.14 points to close the Thursday session at 20,630.69.
June futures on the S&P/TSX index lost 0.1% Friday morning.
The Canadian dollar doffed 0.29 cents to 73.88 cents U.S.
Brookfield Asset Management has made a counter bid of 2.13 billion pounds ($2.7 billion U.S.) to take over payments provider Network International, topping a joint proposal from CVC Capital and Francisco Partners.
Imperial Oil's CEO apologized to Canadian lawmakers for toxic tailings leaks at its Kearl oil sands mine and conceded the company had been "negligent" in not sharing information with nearby First Nations communities.
Norway's sovereign wealth fund, one of the world's largest investors, said it will support a plan by miner Teck Resources to spin off its metallurgical coal business and focus on copper and zinc.
On the economic calendar, Statistics Canada reported retail sales decreased 0.2% to $66.3 billion in February. Sales decreased in four of nine subsectors and were led by decreases at gasoline stations and fuel vendors (-5.0%) and general merchandise retailers (-1.6%).
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange ditched 10.67 points, or 1.7%, Thursday to 615.49.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stock futures nudged lower Friday morning as investors took in a week’s worth of earnings results and a fresh round of data that showed the economy in a rut.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrials gave up 34 points, or 0.1%, at 33,875.
Futures for the S&P 500 fell eight points, or 0.2%, to 4,144.50.
Futures for the NASDAQ Composite flopped 47.75 points, or 0.4%, to 13,026.50.
All the major averages are on pace to end the week in the red, with the Dow and the S&P 500 on track for their worst weekly performances since March.
Earnings season continued Friday, with results from Procter & Gamble. The consumer products company gained 1% in the premarket after beating expectations and liftings it sales forecast. So far this season, nearly 77% of companies have beaten analyst estimates, according to FactSet.
Along with earnings, investors on Friday will be looking at Purchasing Managers’ Index data at 9:45 a.m. ET for the manufacturing and services sectors to get insight into the economy.
The latest batch of economic reports Thursday showed that jobless claims rose more than expected, while manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia region was even deeper in contraction than anticipated. Also, the Conference Board’s leading economic indicators index continued to point to a recession ahead.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 backed off 0.3% Friday, while in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng stumbled 1.6%.
Oil prices gathered 18 cents to $77.55 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices retreated $22.10 to $1,997 U.S. an ounce.
