Stock futures pointed to a flat to slightly higher opening for Canada's main stock index on Wednesday, after previous session's strong U.S. economic data boosted investor sentiment.
The S&P/TSX composite index finished Tuesday up 45.24 points to 14,380.55, with June futures printing higher by 0.05% Wednesday.
The Canadian dollar gained 0.10 cents to 90.77cents U.S. early Wednesday
Fertilizer company Agrium Inc said a late start to spring and railroad backlogs had hurt its first-quarter earnings.
BlackBerry said on Tuesday it will not renew its license with T-Mobile U.S. Inc to sell BlackBerry products after the current contract expires on April 25.
Light synthetic crude from the oil sands reached a nine-month high on Tuesday as traders looked ahead to planned maintenance at the 286,000 barrel per day Syncrude project in northern Alberta.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange picked up 6.37 points Tuesday to 1,000.93
ON WALLSTREET
Markets look ready to grind higher Wednesday, as investors make a cautious push into uncharted territory.
Ahead of the opening bell, futures for the Dow Jones Industrials gained nine points to 16,458. Futures for the S&P 500 were flat at 1,877.80, and futures for the NASDAQ moved higher 10.50 points, or 0.3%, at 3,660.75.
GM will be in focus again Wednesday as CEO Mary Barra returns to the Hill to answer legislators' questions regarding the automaker's ignition switch recall. Despite all the negative publicity, GM reported sales Tuesday that topped analysts' expectations.
Monsanto will report earnings before the opening bell.
April is typically the top performing month of the year, with stocks returning 1.7% on average over the past four decades, according to Schaeffer's Investment Research.
The ADP employment report revealed this morning that the American private sector added 191,000 new jobs in March, a precursor to the full employment report coming up this Friday.
European markets managed narrow gains in morning trading, while Asian markets ended higher.
Japan's Nikkei 225 advanced 1% after the Bank of Japan released survey data showing Japanese companies expect inflation to hit 1.5% next year, which could be interpreted as a positive sign in the central bank's fight against falling prices.
China markets also ended the day in positive territory.
The Shanghai Composite added 0.6% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng increased 0.3%.
Oil prices sank 56 cents to $99.18 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices gained $6.70 at $1,286.80 U.S. an ounce.
