Stock markets in Toronto looked set to kick off the quarter on a positive note on Tuesday after U.S. Fed Chair Janet Yellen's dovish comments eased concerns about a rate hike coming earlier than expected.
The S&P/TSX composite index increased 74.59 points to close Monday’s session at 14,335.31, with morning futures Tuesday up 0.2%
The Canadian dollar nicked up 0.04 cents to 90.52 cents U.S. early Tuesday
Kinross Gold Corp released a feasibility study for its Tasiast gold mine expansion on Monday with a lower-than-previously-estimated capital cost, but said it does not plan to make a final decision on the project until 2015 at the earliest.
Workers at Toyota Motor Corp's Canadian plants are set to vote next week on whether to become the first at wholly-owned Toyota facilities in North America to unionize, a push Canada's biggest private-sector union is confident will succeed.
Encana Corp said on Monday it was selling its properties in Wyoming's Jonah natural gas field to an arm of private equity firm TPG Capital for $1.8 billion as part of a plan to shed assets and concentrate its operations.
On the economic scene, Statistics Canada’s industrial product price index rose 1% in February, due to higher energy and petroleum prices, while its raw materials price index moved 5.7% higher in the same month, led by crude energy products.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange tacked on 4.81 points Monday to 994.56
ON WALLSTREET
After a strong finish to an otherwise flat first quarter, markets look poised to begin April with a spring in their step.
Ahead of the opening bell, futures for the Dow Jones Industrials advanced 37 points, or 0.2%, to 16,410. Futures for the S&P 500 gained 4.5 points, or 0.2%, to 1,869.10, and futures for the NASDAQ took on 8.75 points, or 0.2%, at 3,595.
General Motors will also take centre stage. Its shares continued to slide in extended trading Monday after the company announced another recall and set aside more money to cover the costs.
GM has been criticized for how it handled a different recall due to faulty ignition switches, linked to the deaths of 13 people. CEO Mary Barra will testify before Congress on Tuesday and Wednesday about the problems.
But shares of Caterpillar fell after a report claimed it avoided $2.4 billion U.S. in taxes.
Investors will be looking to the Institute of Supply Management’s manufacturing index -- due out at 10 a.m. ET -- for the latest clues on the health of the U.S. economy, after Janet Yellen said Monday that the Federal Reserve's repair job was not yet finished.
European markets were broadly firmer in morning trading, while Asian markets ended mixed. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 dipped 0.2% on the first day of a sales tax hike that will bring the rate to 8% from 5%, a new potential drag on the economy.
China markets ended in positive territory despite the release of muddled data on the country's factories. The Hang Seng added 1.3% and the Shanghai Composite rose 0.7%
Oil prices dipped 21 cents to $101.37 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices gained 90 cents at $1,284.70 U.S. an ounce.
