The Toronto stock market looked to open slightly lower Thursday amid mixed commodities and U.S. earnings news.
The S&P/TSX composite index gained 80.20 points to end Wednesday’s session at 13,772.58
The Canadian dollar was flat at 91.44 cents U.S.
Bombardier will be in focus after the transportation giant said the entry of its new CSeries passenger jets has been delayed. It said that the CS100 won’t be going into service until the second half of 2015 while the CS300 will go into service about six months later.
The initial CSeries planes were expected to be ready for service late this year or early in 2015 after 12 months of flight tests, which began in mid-September last year.
The company also announced a firm agreement to sell 16 CS300 aircraft to a Saudi Arabian airline with an option to sell an additional 10 aircraft. The order for the 16 aircraft is valued at approximately $1.21 billion U.S., but should all 10 options be exercised, the value of the contract would increase to $1.99 billion U.S.
In other corporate news, Montreal-based food company Saputo is closer to acquiring Australia’s oldest dairy processor. Bega Cheese Ltd. says it will sell its 18.8% stake in Warrnambool Cheese & Butter to Saputo. Prior to Bega’s announcement, Saputo had acquired about one-quarter of Warrnambool’s stock. Saputo continues to face one rival, Australia’s Murray Goulburn, which owns about 17.7% of Warrnambool.
Sears Canada is cutting more than 1,600 positions as the company looks for ways to lower expenses. The retailer has eliminated 283 jobs at warehouses across much of the country and it will also outsource the 1,345 associate jobs at its three customer call centres in Toronto, Montreal and Belleville, Ont., over the next nine months.
On the economic front, Statistics Canada reported that offshore investors added $8.7 billion of Canadian securities to their holdings in November, mostly corporate securities. It’s the fifth straight monthly rise, while Canadian investors acquired $6.6 billion of foreign securities, all bonds.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange zoomed 11.10 points Wednesday to 975.81.
ON WALLSTREET
Investors will have plenty of reports to wade through Thursday, with quarterly results due before the opening bell from firms including Goldman Sachs and Citigroup
Ahead of the opening bell, futures for the Dow Jones Industrials doffed 15 points, or 0.1%, to 16,393. Futures for the S&P 500 fell 4.1 points, or 0.2%, to 1,837.50, and futures for the NASDAQ dipped 3.75 points, or 0.1%, to 3,594.50.
BlackRock shares jumped after the investment firm reported significant increase in quarterly profit and revenue.
Intel and American Express are scheduled to report in the afternoon.
In other corporate news, CEC Entertainment, the owner of Chuck E. Cheese, announced that it had entered a $1.3-billion U.S. merger agreement with Apollo Global Management
J.C. Penney shares slipped in pre-market trading Thursday after the ailing retailer announced plans to eliminate 2,000 jobs and close 33 stores.
Shares in Hewlett-Packard are moving up ahead of the opening bell as investors feel optimistic about the firm's plans to sell some new tablets in the Indian market.
The U.S. government is set to release the monthly consumer price index, its key measure of inflation, this morning. It will also publish its weekly report on initial jobless claims.
European and Asian markets posted mixed results. Overall, the market moves were tepid.
Oil prices tacked on 21 cents to $94.36 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices faded $1.70 to $1,237.80 U.S. an ounce.
