Canada's main stock index futures edged lower, bucking the trend of global markets that were higher as investors broadly bet that global monetary policy will be kept loose for longer as central banks try to mitigate recent market turmoil.
The S&P/TSX composite index reverted to positive territory 63.35 points to close Wednesday at 13,545.25
The Canadian dollar inched up 0.04 cents to 75.40 cents U.S. early Thursday
Canadian Oil Sands says Canada's largest synthetic crude project will return to normal operations toward the end of September, its operator said late on Wednesday, confirming market talk of an extended outage after last weekend's fire. The Company said the Syncrude venture, which produced 326,000 barrels per day of synthetic crude in July, will operate with "minimal synthetic crude oil shipments and operating rates" for the next two weeks as part of a phased recovery
Police and Ministry of Labour officials in Ontario are investigating the death of an employee at Detour Gold’s mine in June, the company said on Wednesday. Local media reported that Ontario police are looking into the June 3 death of Denis Millette, 52, a millwright at the Detour Lake mine. Millette was making repairs to equipment inside the mine when it was noticed that he was in "medical distress," media reports said.
National Bank Financial raised the target price on Laurentian Bank to $52.00 from $51.00 following the bank’s better-than-expected third-quarter EPS.
CIBC cut the target price on Sears Canada to $11.00 from $13.00 after the company announced a disappointing quarter.
On the economic beat, Statistics Canada reported that the country’s exports rose 2.3% in July, focused mostly on non-energy products.
Imports were up 1.7%. As a result, Canada's merchandise trade deficit with the world narrowed from $811 million in June to $593 million in July.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange stayed upward 2.08 points Wednesday to 550.05
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stock futures are poised for gains Thursday and global markets were pushing higher.
Ahead of the opening bell, futures for the Dow Jones Industrials gained 78 points, or 0.5%, to 16,408, futures for the S&P acquired 9.5 points or 0.5%, to 1,956.50, and futures for the NASDAQ put on 20 points, or 0.5%, to 4,280.
Companies including Campbell Soup and Lands' End will report ahead of the open. Another handful of firms will report this afternoon.
A couple of economic releases to watch: The U.S. Labor Department releases weekly jobless claims data this morning, ahead of the closely watched non-farm payroll data due out Friday.
Also this morning, the U.S. Census Bureau will report July's trade deficit numbers.
All eyes will be on the European Central Bank and its monthly policy meeting. The impact of falling commodity prices and easing global growth are likely to be addressed, along with the progress of a massive stimulus program launched by the bank this year to revive the region's fragile economy.
As central bankers and finance ministers from the G-20 group of leading economies gather in Turkey, the International Monetary Fund warned of the risks to global growth and urged advanced economies to keep fiscal and monetary policy loose.
Markets in China are shut for a two-day holiday, giving investors a breather after weeks of wild trading sparked turmoil on indexes around the world.
Oil prices faded 11 cents to $46.14 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices slipped $6.40 to $1,127.20 U.S. an ounce.
