Canada's main stock index looked set to open lower on Wednesday, hurt by renewed concerns about the health of the euro-zone’s economy and weaker-than-expected results from Suncor Energy Inc, the country's biggest oil company.
The S&P/TSX composite index gained 28.03 points to close Tuesday at 12,745.65
Suncor posted a fourth-quarter loss as it wrote down the value of its Voyageur oil sands upgrading project just weeks before it is due to make a final decision on whether to build the facility.
TMX Group Ltd reported a profit for the first full quarter since the operator of the Toronto Stock Exchange was bought by a financial consortium last year.
Husky Energy Inc, Canada's number-three oil producer and refiner, reported a 16% rise in fourth-quarter net profit, helped by a higher refining margin.
Property and casualty insurer Intact Financial Corp said fourth-quarter profit more than doubled, helped by higher investment gains.
WestJet Airlines Ltd, Canada's second-largest airline, reported a rise in fourth-quarter profit on higher traffic and record load factor in December
The Canadian dollar slid 0.32 cents to 100.13 cents U.S. early Wednesday.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange docked 1.23 points to end Tuesday’s session at 1,215.27
ON WALLSTREET
Investors are bracing for another batch of quarterly earnings Wednesday, as the Dow and S&P 500 hover below all-time highs.
Futures for the Dow Industrials backtracked 34 points, or 0.2%, to 13,876. Futures for the S&P 500 docked 4.9 points, or 0.3%, to 1,501, and futures for the NASDAQ ditched 11 points, or 0.4%, to 2,738.25
Time Warner posted better-than-expected earnings, sending shares 4% higher in pre-market trading. The media conglomerate also announced it will raise its dividend by 11% to 28.75 cents a share.
Shares of Irish neuroscience biotech company Elan rose nearly 4% after the company reported strong earnings and said it would pay $3.25 billion to end its collaboration with Biogen Indec
Expedia shares gained more than 1%, a day after the online travel site posted strong results, helped by higher hotel bookings.
Investors are starting to worry about the latest phone launch from BlackBerry, formerly known as Research in Montion. News outlets reported short or nonexistent lines Tuesday at stores in the phone maker's home country of Canada.
Hewlett-Packard shares continued to rally in pre-market trading for a second day, following its publicly stated threat to steal customers away from Dell, which announced plans to go private
News Corp., Yelp and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters earnings are up after the bell.
Disney shares rose more than 3% in pre-market trading, a day after the media company reported earnings and revenues that beat analysts' forecasts.
Zynga's results also came in ahead of forecasts late Tuesday, sending the shares up 7% in pre-market trading Wednesday morning.
Asian markets were led higher by Japan’s Nikkei 225, which surged 3.8% and closed at its highest level since 2008 on hopes that the yen will continue to weaken.
The rally was helped by news that Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa will step down from his post sooner than expected. The country's central bank has been under intense political pressure to engage in further monetary easing. Meanwhile, the Shanghai Composite added 0.1% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.5%.
European markets were mixed in morning trading on Wednesday. Steel giant ArcelorMittal reported it was seeing "positive indicators," despite the fragility of the European economy and operating profit should rise in 2013.
Oil prices gave back $1.38 to $95.26 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices hiked $4.70 an ounce to $1,678.20 U.S.
