Stock futures pointed to a flat opening for Canada's main stock index on Friday as commodity markets swings stabilized with oil inching back towards $50.00 U.S. a barrel, gold cooled after a strong run and copper settled after a plunge through the week.
The S&P/TSX composite index gave up 42.61 points to close Thursday at 14,041.82. March futures were unchanged early Friday.
The Canadian dollar descended 0.48 cents to 83.13 cents U.S. early Friday.
Canada has postponed a summit with the leaders of the United States and Mexico, officials said on Thursday, amid persistent tensions over the construction of TransCanada Corp's Keystone XL pipeline and other issues.
National Bank raised the price target on Richmont Mines to $5.00 from $4.50, with an outperform rating.
CIBC cut the rating on Bombardier Inc. to sector perform from outperform,
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange dipped 0.45 points Thursday to 659.24
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stock futures are moving down, though the losses are muted, amid chaos on Swiss markets.
Ahead of the opening bell, futures for the Dow Jones Industrials dumped 95 points, or 0.6% to 17,188. Futures for the S&P 500 faded 10.75 points, or 0.5%, to 1,978.25, and futures for the NASDAQ ditched 30 points, or 0.7%, to 4,059.
Over the past five consecutive trading days, the major U.S. indexes have all fallen by over 3%
Meanwhile, the Swiss stock market is still tumbling Friday, with the benchmark index off by more than 5% as investors consider the long-term implications of Switzerland's surprise decision to let its currency float freely instead of pinning it to the euro.
Swiss companies, and currency brokers, are still licking their wounds after the surprise move on Thursday led the franc to shoot up in value and pushed Swiss stocks down by nearly 10%.
Wall Street is preparing for more earnings to come through Friday.
Goldman Sachs, PNC, and SunTrust Banks will report quarterly results before the opening bell.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics will report December's consumer price index this morning.
The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index comes out at 9:55 a.m.
Official euro-zone data confirms that prices fell across the region by 0.2% last month, marking the first time the area has experienced deflation since the Great Recession.
Oil prices added 44 cents to $46.69 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices slid $4.10 to $1,260.70 U.S. an ounce.
