Canadian stocks looked set to open little changed on Wednesday
The S&P/TSX composite index dropped 84.74 points to close Tuesday at 14,612.37, with June futures up but 0.1% Wednesday.
The Canadian dollar was unchanged at 91.82 cents U.S. early Wednesday.
Natural gas whiz Encana Corp. said it would buy producing assets in the Eagle Ford shale field in Texas from Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc for $3.1 billion, nearly doubling its oil output.
Talisman Energy Inc, Canada's number-five independent oil and gas producer, posted a first-quarter profit, compared with a year-earlier loss, as oil and natural gas liquids production in North America soared 45%.
Enbridge Inc, Canada's largest pipeline company, reported a 56% rise in quarterly profit, helped by higher volumes on its regional oil sands system.
Torstar Corp said first-quarter sales slipped, hurt by an 8% fall in revenue at its media business, which publishes the country's largest daily newspaper.
On the economic beat, Statistics Canada reported this morning that building permits totaled $6 billion in March, down 3% from February. The March decline followed an 11.3% decrease the previous month.
The nation’s number-crunchers added that lower construction intentions in the non-residential sector in six provinces, led by Ontario, more than offset a gain in the residential sector.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange fell 3.83 points Tuesday to 1,005.62
ON WALLSTREET
Investors are buzzing about Alibaba's long awaited U.S. initial public offering, but the real market mover Wednesday is expected to be testimony from Janet Yellen on Capitol Hill.
Ahead of the opening bell, futures for the Dow Jones Industrials bolted higher 65 points, or 0.4%, to 16,425. Futures for the S&P 500 gathered 6.7 points, or 0.4%, at 1,871, and futures for the NASDAQ picked up 13.5 points, or 0.4%, to 3,564.50.
Chinese tech behemoth Alibaba filed paperwork on Tuesday that sets the stage for what could be the biggest initial public offering in U.S. history.
Yahoo owns a 24% stake in Alibaba and will profit nicely after the IPO is complete. Shares in the U.S. tech company jumped by 2% ahead of the opening bell.
In corporate news, AOL reported a jump in quarterly revenue, driven by advertising. But shares slipped in premarket trading as net income took a dive.
Brewer Molson Coors reported that "underlying after-tax income" more than doubled during the quarter, compared to one year ago, but net sales slipped and worldwide beer volume was flat.
Tesla and SolarCity will report after the close. Shares in Anheuser-Busch InBev were edging higher, recovering from lackluster trading after the brewer reported lower than expected profits.
Whole Foods shares were plunging by 17% in pre-market trading. The company posted earnings that fell short of expectations and issued a disappointing outlook on Tuesday.
Shares in Groupon dropped significantly before the bell after the firm reported a larger-than-expected quarterly loss.
Investors will pay close attention to the Federal Reserve chair when she heads to Capitol Hill at 10 a.m. ET to answer questions about the health of America's economy. Yellen's script is likely to mirror the Fed's statement last week when it decided to dial back its bond-buying program by an additional $10 billion U.S. But she has surprised markets before.
European markets were mostly moving up in morning trading.
Asian markets all closed with losses. The Nikkei in Japan sank by nearly 3%
Oil prices gained 82 cents to $100.32 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices dropped two dollars to $1,306.60 U.S. an ounce.
