Stock futures pointed to a higher opening for Canada's main stock index on Friday, the first trading day of 2015.
The S&P/TSX composite index dropped 7.60 points Wednesday to end the day, month and year at 14,632.44, with Friday futures up 0.6%.
The Canadian dollar backtracked 0.23 cents to 85.84 cents U.S. early Friday.
Barrick Gold says Chile's Supreme Court has declined to hear its appeal of a lower court's decision involving fines imposed on its Pascua-Lama project by the country's environmental regulator.
RBC manufacturing PMI data for December is due this morning.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange gained 8.41 points Wednesday to 695.53.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stock futures are set for a mini surge Friday, rebounding from a drop right ahead of New Year's Eve.
Ahead of the opening bell, futures for the Dow Jones Industrials gained 62 points, or 0.4%, to 17,814. Futures for the S&P 500 gained 6.5 points, or 0.3%, to 2,059, and futures for the NASDAQ gained 14.75 points, or 0.4%, to 4,247.50.
The Dow shed 160 points on the last day of the year, while the S&P 500 fell 1% and the NASDAQ slid 0.9%.
Despite this last-minute dip into the red, 2014 was another record-setting year in the stock market. The Dow finished the year up 7.5%, the S&P 500 rose 11.4% and the tech-heavy NASDAQ soared 13.4%.
In the U.S., the ISM manufacturing index will be published at 10 a.m. ET.
At the same time, the U.S. Census Bureau will release data on construction spending.
European markets were declining in early trading as a new report showed the European manufacturing sector had essentially stagnated at the end of the year.
The main indexes in France and Germany were both off by about 1%.
Some Asian markets were closed Friday, but those that were open registered gains for the day.
Oil prices retreated 86 cents to $52.41 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices dipped $7.10 to $1,177.00 U.S. an ounce.
