Stock futures pointed to a lower opening for equities in Toronto on Friday, tracking U.S. futures ahead of the final reading on U.S. real Gross Domestic Product for the fourth quarter and Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's speech later in the day.
The S&P/TSX composite index stumbled 59.57 points to close Thursday at 14,869.30. June futures demurred 0.1% early Friday.
The Canadian dollar dropped 0.03 cents to 80.07 cents U.S. early Friday.
BlackBerry Ltd posted a fiscal fourth-quarter profit compared with a year-earlier loss, offering some signs its turnaround efforts may be beginning to gain traction.
BRP Inc, the maker of Ski-Doo snowmobiles and Sea-Doo watercraft, reported a much higher-than-expected quarterly profit, helped by a stronger dollar, the introduction of new powersport vehicles and higher shipments of Can-Am off-road vehicles.
Kinross Gold Corp has agreed pay $33 million to settle a shareholder lawsuit that had accused the Canadian gold miner of defrauding investors through an ill-advised mine acquisition in Mauritania that has resulted in over $6 billion in writedowns.
Canaccord Genuity upped the rating on Chesswood Group to buy from hold; the target price to $13.75 from $12.50
RBC raised the price target on Imperial Oil to $49.00 from $47.00
Macquarie cut the rating on Legacy Oil + Gas to neutral; the target price to $2.00 from $3.50
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange poked ahead 2.32 points Thursday to 679.56
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stock futures are edging lower, indicating all the major indexes could dip into the red when trading begins.
Ahead of the opening bell, futures for the Dow Jones Industrials slid 22 points, or 0.1%, to 17,581. Futures for the S&P 500 fell 1.25 points, or 0.1%, to 2,047.25, and futures for the NASDAQ dipped 1.25 points to 4,309.50
Shares in Adidas are up by about 3.5% in Germany as investors react favourably to a turnaround plan presented by management at the sports apparel company. Shares in Yahoo are rising by about 2% pre-market after the company announced plans to buy back an additional $2 billion U.S. of its own shares.
Gamestop is down by 6% pre-market after the company reported quarterly results that missed expectations.
Lufthansa shares gained 1%, steadying after hefty losses this week following the crash of its Germanwings flight in France Tuesday.
BlackBerry, Carnival and Finish Line are all reporting ahead of the open.
On the economic side, the U.S. government will post its third estimate of fourth quarter GDP early this morning.
Then at 10 a.m. ET, the University of Michigan will release its final March reading of consumer sentiment.
European markets are mixed in early trading. Asian markets ended the week with mixed results.
Oil prices reduced 59 cents to $50.84 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices stumbled $3.60 to $1,201.20 U.S. an ounce.
