Stock futures pointed to a slightly higher opening for Canada's main stock index ahead of the Bank of Canada's rate decision announcement due later in the day. Bank of Montreal is expected to report quarterly results later in the session
The S&P/TSX composite index dropped 136.59 points to close Tuesday at 15,050.81
The Canadian dollar continued to tumble, losing 0.23 cents to 80.20 cents U.S. early Wednesday.
National Bank of Canada reported a 12.5% rise in quarterly profit, largely helped by its financial markets business. The company's net income attributable to shareholders rose to $388 million, or $1.13 per share, in the second quarter ended April 30 from $345 million, or $1.01 per share, a year earlier.
Crescent Point Energy Inc. said on Tuesday it has agreed to acquire Legacy Oil + Gas Inc for shares and debt worth $1.53 billion, adding oil production in its core regions in Western Canada and North Dakota. Crescent Point is offering 0.095 of its own shares for each Legacy share. Based on Crescent Point's closing price on Monday of $30.00, the offer is worth $2.85 per Legacy share.
General Electric Co is in advanced talks to sell assets of its vehicle fleet management business, GE Capital Fleet Services, to Element Financial Corp, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. While a deal has not yet been reached, GE hopes to draw up terms of a sale by the end of the quarter, Bloomberg reported.
Air Canada said on Tuesday it plans to redeploy capital toward share buybacks, debt repayment and increased investment in new aircraft, as its once huge pension fund deficit has now been wiped out much earlier than expected. Its pension fund deficit stood at $4.2 billion in 2012, and Air Canada struck a deal with the government in 2013 that gave it more time to fix the funding gap.
As mentioned, the Bank of Canada is out this morning (10 a.m. ET) with another rate announcement.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange dropped 8.13 points Tuesday to 691.96
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stock futures are holding steady following a Tuesday pullback. Investors seem to have been concerned about an upcoming interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve.
Ahead of the opening bell, futures for the Dow Jones Industrials gained 34 points, or 0.2%, to 18,087, futures for the S&P 500 pulled ahead four points, or 0.2%, to 2,109, and futures for the NASDAQ advanced 9.25 points, or 0.2%, to 4,489.
DSW, Michael Kors and Tiffany & Co are reporting ahead of the open.
Costco will report after the close.
Shares in Imperial Tobacco Group are edging up by about 1.5% in London after the company announced it had received regulatory approval to acquire some cigarette and e-cigarette brands from Reynolds American and Lorillard.
This comes as BrandZ publishes an annual ranking showing that the Marlboro cigarette brand remains one of the most valuable in the world, worth more even than the Facebook brand. Marlboro cigarettes are sold by Altria in the U.S. and Philip Morris International overseas.
In Europe, all the main indexes are pushing up in early trading. Asian markets ended with mixed results.
The International Monetary Fund has declared the Chinese yuan is "no longer undervalued," after spending years criticizing China for keeping its currency from strengthening too much against the U.S. dollar.
China's yuan, also called the renminbi, has risen about 0.5% against the U.S. dollar in the last year.
Oil prices retreated five cents to $57.98 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices faded $1.10 to $1,186.70 U.S. an ounce.
