Futures for stocks in Canada’s largest market edged higher on Wednesday, driven by crude oil prices, while investors braced for a data-heavy week in the U.S. and Canada that could indicate the interest rate hike path for central banks.
The TSX climbed 265.27 points, or 1.3%, to close Tuesday at 20,290.41.
September futures improved 0.1% Wednesday.
The Canadian dollar eased 0.01 cents to 73.73 cents U.S.
Along with the National of Bank of Canada, four of the big six Canadian banks - Toronto-Dominion Bank, Bank of Nova Scotia and Bank of Montreal have missed third-quarter profit estimates on higher loan provisions.
The only exception has been Royal Bank of Canada which beat analysts' estimates, while Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce is set to report quarterly earnings on Thursday.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange regained 5.43 points Tuesday to 588.15.
ON WALLSTREET
Stock futures fell slightly Wednesday after another positive session, marking the latest leg in an end-of-month rally as investors try to mitigate August’s losses.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrials gained nine points to 34,896.
Futures for the S&P 500 dipped 2.25 points, or 0.1%, to 4,504.50.
Futures for the NASDAQ settled 12.25 points, or 0.1%, to 15,403.50.
The moves followed a third consecutive winning session on Wall Street as investors made up some ground at the end of the month. The technology-heavy NASDAQ added 1.7% in the session. The S&P 500 rose about 1.5%, notching its best performance since June. The Dow climbed nearly 0.9%.
Tuesday’s gains come on the back of data signaling the economy could be slowing. A Conference Board consumer sentiment index came in at 106.1, under the consensus estimate of 116 from economists polled by Dow Jones. Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed a decline in open job listings in July.
Brown-Forman, which owns Jack Daniel’s whiskey, is slated to report quarterly earnings before the bell, followed by technology stocks Salesforce, CrowdStrike and Okta after the market closes.
Elsewhere, investors will keep an eye on GDP and pending home sales data expected Wednesday morning.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index gained 0.3% Wednesday, while in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng docked 1.17 points.
Oil prices picked up 42 cents to $81.58 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices took on three dollars to $1,968.10 U.S. an ounce.
