Stock futures pointed to a higher opening for Canada's main stock index on Thursday as Brent oil futures held above $48.00 U.S. a barrel, fueled by investors' buying on hopes for a price rebound.
The S&P/TSX composite index jettisoned 231 points, or 1.6%, to close Wednesday at 14,602.88. Futures were up Thursday by 0.2%.
The Canadian dollar dipped 0.03 cents to 79.77 cents U.S. early Thursday.
Potash Corp of Saskatchewan reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit, helped by strong potash sales and lower costs.
Imperial Oil said on Wednesday it is considering selling 475 company-owned Esso gas stations.
Jefferies cut the rating on CGI Group to hold from buy
CIBC raised the rating on Canacol Energy to outperform from sector perform.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange staggered 9.47 points Wednesday to 667.30.
ON WALLSTREET
Futures were inching ahead within an hour of the opening bell Thursday.
Ahead of the opening bell, futures for the Dow Jones Industrials gained 37 points, or 0.2%, to 17,137. Futures for the S&P 500 eked up 2.25 points, or 0.1%, to 1,993.75, and futures for the NASDAQ faded 0.75 points to 4,123.50.
Alibaba, Ford, Coach and Time Warner Cable are among the companies reporting earnings before the opening bell.
Oil companies Valero, Royal Dutch Shell, Phillips 66 and ConocoPhillips are also reporting ahead of the open.
Alibaba shares are falling by about 5% pre-market after the e-commerce giant reported a surge in quarterly earnings, but missed Wall Street's high expectations.
Shares in Ford are edging up pre-market after the automaker predicted a brighter yearafter a difficult end to 2014.
Royal Dutch Shell shares fell by about 5% in London after the company said it would cut spending on oil projects by $15 billion U.S. over the next three years.
Meanwhile, Google, Amazon and Visa will report after the close.
Facebook shares were edging down by 1% pre-market after the social networking giant reported fourth-quarter results on Wednesday.
Qualcomm shares were dropping by about 8% pre-market after the company cut its sales and earnings outlook. The company blamed the lower outlook on increased competition in China, among other things.
Shares in Samsung dipped by just over 1% in Asia after the company reported another set of disappointing results.
Investors are bidding up shares in McDonald's ahead of the open after CEO Don Thompson announced his retirement. This comes a week after McDonald's reported awful financial results.
The U.S. government will report weekly jobless claims this morning.
At 10 a.m., new U.S. data on pending home sales will be released from December.
The main stock market index in Greece stabilized, trading up by about 2% after plunging Wednesday.
The index has fallen 12% since the start of the year as investors have grown increasingly worried about Greece's financial health following the election of a new government that wants to renegotiate the terms of its international bailout.
Oil prices fell 0.02 to $44.43 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices slipped $18.30 to $1,267.60 U.S. an ounce.
