Canadian stocks looked set to open lower on Friday.
The S&P/TSX composite index stumbled 84.84 points to end the day at 14,588.89, with June futures down Friday by 0.2%.
The Canadian dollar inched up 0.05 cents to 91.94 cents U.S. early Friday.
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce said on Thursday it will take a non-cash goodwill impairment charge of $420 million on its Caribbean unit due to challenging economic conditions in the region.
Canaccord Genuity and Raymond James raised their target prices on Air Canada
CIBC raised the rating on Stantec to outperformer from sector perform
NBF cut the rating on Strategic Oil & Gas to underperform from sector perform
On the economic slate, Statistics Canada reported that investors in this country acquired $7.9 billion of foreign securities in March, the largest such outflow of funds since November 2012. Meanwhile, foreign investors reduced their holdings of Canadian securities by $1.2 billion, the first monthly divestment this year.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange capsized 17.09 points Thursday to 974.65
ON WALLSTREET
A week of records on U.S. markets could end with a whimper, with investor sentiment struggling to recover after taking a big hit Wednesday.
Ahead of the opening bell, futures for the Dow Jones Industrials faded six points to 16,415. Futures for the S&P 500 inched forward 0.5 points at 1,867.80, and futures for the NASDAQ gained 1.75 points to 3,565.
Declining Treasury yields, disappointing quarterly earnings from Wal-Mart and a broad sense of fear in the markets has contributed to pushing stocks down.
Shares in J.C. Penney are soaring by roughly 20% ahead of the opening bell after the company posted quarterly sales that beat expectations and revealed a smaller-than-expected loss.
Nordstrom shares also rose in extended trading after the company posted earnings that beat analysts' expectations.
Shares in Verizon are rising by about 2% after Warren Buffett's investment firm, Berkshire Hathaway, revealed it had purchased a stake worth nearly $530 million U.S. in the company.
Wall Street is now waiting for the U.S. government to publish housing starts and building permit numbers from April this morning. The monthly Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index comes out later in the morning.
Asian markets ended with mixed results, while European markets were relatively flat in morning trading.
Oil prices dipped four cents to $101.46 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices took on a dime to $1,293.70 U.S. an ounce.
