The Toronto stock market appeared set for a lower session Wednesday as a fresh round of demand concerns pushed commodity prices lower and quarterly earnings from Bank of Montreal missed expectations.
The S&P/TSX composite index advanced 54.14 points to finish Tuesday at 12,750.51
The Canadian dollar regained 0.31 cents to 96.46 cents U.S. early Wednesday.
BMO Financial Group says its second-quarter adjusted net income was $997 million or $1.46 a share, three cents short of estimates. Overall net income was $975 million.
Investors are anticipating the Bank of Canada rate decision. The bank is widely expected to leave rates unchanged until well into next years, reflecting a tepid global economic recovery.
The slow pace of economic activity was front and centre Wednesday morning after the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said that the recession in Europe risks threatening the world's economic recovery.
In its half-yearly update, the OECD again slashed its forecast for the 17 European Union countries that use the euro, saying it will shrink by 0.6% this year, after a 0.5% drop in 2012.
The U.S. economy will continue to outpace Europe, the OECD said, with growth of 1.9% in 2013 and 2.8 per cent in 2014. It projects Canada's growth will be slower than the United States, with a 1.4% advance this year and 2.3% next year.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange gained 5.80 points Tuesday to 954.14
ON WALLSTREET
After a day of significant gains, U.S. markets were pointing to a lower open Wednesday.
Futures for the Dow Industrials dropped 90 points, or 0.6%, to 15,283. Futures for the S&P 500 fell 10.9 points, or 0.7%, to 1,643.70, and futures for the NASDAQ shed 18 points, or 0.6%, to 2,985.50
Shares of Apple were lower after an appearance at the AllThingsD conference by CEO Tim Cook Tuesday evening. Cook was evasive about the company's product plans, saying only that the iPhone maker was looking for more "game changers" in its future and that he considered the wearable computing product segment "incredibly interesting."
Citigroup reached a settlement with the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Authority in a suit charging it deceived Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac when it sold the housing finance firms mortgage securities during the housing bubble. Citigroup shares fell in after-hours trading.
It is a quiet day for domestic economic data and earnings. Overseas, the International Monetary Fund cut the growth forecast for China, the world's number-two economy. The IMF raised concerns about a rapid expansion in credit there and the ability of borrowers to repay the loans.
All European markets were lower in morning trading. After rising by 1.7% Tuesday, London's FTSE 100 index fell by 1.2%.
Meanwhile, markets were mixed in Asia. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 and the Shanghai Compositeindex both closed up by 0.1%. The Hang Seng dropped by 1.6%, with nearly every company in the index in the red
Oil prices eased 82 cents to $94.19 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices improved $11.60 to $1,390.50 U.S.
