Canada's main stock index looked set to open higher on Thursday after sinking to a near five-month low the previous session, with some investors turning more optimistic ahead of a slew of U.S. corporate earnings, and with an eye to scooping up bargains.
The S&P/TSX index dipped 172.76 points, or 1.4%, to close Wednesday at 11,947.16. Futures managed a gain of 0.5% Thursday.
African Barrick Gold, the subject of a failed takeover attempt in January, said that this week's plunge in the price of gold has raised the stakes for its internal operational review.
The Canadian dollar picked up 0.16 cents to 97.59 cents U.S. early Thursday.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange capsized 38.30 points Wednesday to 921.70
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stock futures were up slightly ahead of the opening bell Thursday, a big day for corporate earnings.
Futures for the Dow Industrials prospered 58 points, or 0.4%, to 14,610. Futures for the S&P 500 took on 5.1 points, or 0.3%, to 1,551.20, and futures for the NASDAQ gained 10.5 points, or 0.4%, to 2,785.
Nokia's stock price plummeted 13% in pre-market trading after the Finnish cell phone company reported a 20% drop in quarterly sales.
Morgan Stanley reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue. PepsiCo blamed a "devaluation of net monetary assets in Venezuela" for its quarterly profit slide
Verizon beat earnings forecasts but missed on revenue.
IBM, Google and Microsoft are up after the close.
Aside from earnings, Apple staged a modest comeback in premarket trading Thursday, a day after its stock fell nearly 6%. Apple was hampered by a negative sales forecast from iPhone supplier Cirrus Logic
Shares of Carnival Corp. rose nearly 3% in pre-market trading after the cruise ship company said it planned to invest more than $600 million U.S. into fixing its disaster-prone toilets.
eBay shares fell 3% in pre-market trading Thursday after the online-auction site offered weak second-quarter guidance on Wednesday.
U.S. stocks closed lower Wednesday, as disappointing earnings sparked a broad selloff.
In economic news, the government will release its weekly data on initial jobless claims this morning
Claims are expected to have totaled 355,000 in the week ended on April 13, according to economists polled by Briefing.com. That would be higher than the prior week's tally of 346,000.
European markets rose in morning trading, while Asian markets ended mixed.
The Shanghai Composite added 0.2%, while the Hang Seng declined 0.4% and the Nikkei 225 lost 1.2%.
Oil prices gained $1.28 to $87.96 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices tacked on $15.90 to $1,398.60 U.S.
