Futures pointed to a lower opening for Canada's main stock index after gold fell from near two-week highs as Chinese investors took profits following a week-long holiday and traders awaited minutes of the U.S. Federal Reserve's September meeting.
The S&P/TSX composite index screamed higher 221.69 points, or 1.6%, to close Wednesday at 13,868.35
The Canadian dollar inched up 0.05 cents to 76.64 cents U.S. early Thursday
Encana Corp said it would sell its Denver Julesberg basin assets in Colorado to a joint venture owned by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Broe Group for $900 million. The deal includes all the Denver Julesberg acreage comprising 51,000 net acres, the company said.
Canaccord Genuity cut the target price on EXFO Inc’s U.S.-listed stocks to $3.25 from $3.50 following the company’s fourth-quarter revenue, which came below expectations.
RBC raised the target price to $85.00 from $77.00 following the Antamina silver stream acquisition from Teck Resources.
Sandvine Corp reports Q3 earnings today, expecting a cent per share
On the economic front, Statistics Canada’s new housing price index rose 0.3% in August, largely a result of higher new home prices in Ontario.
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation was also due out with housing starts for September.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange added 3.76 points Wednesday to 542.62
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stock futures are sinking and the overall market mood is muted.
Ahead of the opening bell, futures for the Dow Jones Industrials dipped 57 points, or 0.3%, to 16,757, futures for the S&P 500 lost 7.75, or 0.4%, to 1,979.5, and futures for the NASDAQ eased 17.25 points, or 0.4%, to 4,306.5.
Domino's Pizza will report quarterly earnings before the opening bell. Then after markets close, investors will hear from Alcoa and Ruby Tuesday.
Dell and data-storage firm EMC are reportedly in discussions about a business combination. Shares in EMC surged by about 8% in extended trading after the merger chatter began.
And in Europe, investors are still waiting for more news on whether AB InBev and SABMiller will merge.
Shares in Fiat Chrysler are rallying by about 4% in Europe after the United Auto Workers union said it reached a tentative agreement with the automaker. This could avert a strike by 40,000 workers.
Shares in Volkswagen could see higher-than-normal trading activity when the head of the firm's U.S. business -- Michael Horn -- appears before U.S. lawmakers at 10 a.m. ET to face questions on the automaker's emissions scandal.
On the economic front, the Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee will post the minutes from itsSeptember meeting at 2 p.m. ET. Investors will parse through these notes for more information about the Fed's plans for a future rate hike.
Two powerful Chinese Internet startups -- essentially the Yelp and Groupon of China -- have joined forces in a deal that is reported to be worth $15 billion U.S.
The firms -- Meituan and Dianping -- said Thursday that they would jointly establish a new company. Meituan and Dianping are backed by tech giants Alibaba and Tencent.
Oil prices climbed 40 cents to $48.21 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices sank $3.99 to $1,139.55 U.S. an ounce.
