Stock futures pointed to a sharply lower opening for equities in Toronto on Thursday after China guided the yuan aggressively lower and oil prices slid to their lowest in more than a decade.
The S&P/TSX composite index lost 193.14 points, or 1.5%, to close Wednesday at 12,726.80
March futures faltered 2.1% Thursday morning.
The Canadian dollar sank 0.33 cents to 70.71 cents U.S. early Thursday.
TransCanada Corp sued the U.S government on Wednesday to reverse U.S. President Barack Obama's rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline, and also plans to seek $15 billion in damages from a trade tribunal.
Bank of Nova Scotia, Canada's third biggest lender, is in discussions to sell a $1-billion vendor and equipment financing portfolio, according to four sources familiar with the matter.
Crescent Point Energy Corp cut its capital budget for 2016 by as much as 39% from 2015.
CIBC cut the target price on Bank of Montreal to $79.00 from $83.00
Cowen and Company started coverage on Bombardier Inc. with a market perform rating
RBC raised the rating on Centerra Gold Inc. to sector perform from underperform.
On the economic front, Western University’s IVEY Purchasing Managers Index is due out at 10 a.m. ET.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange shed 3.89 points Wednesday to 520.37
ON WALLSTREET
Asian and European markets are deep in the red Thursday and U.S. stock futures are dropping fast
Ahead of the opening bell, futures for the Dow Jones Industrials faded 385 points, or 2.3%, to 16,453, futures for the S&P 500 dipped 45.5 points, or 2.3%, to 1,940.5. NASDAQ futures fell 132.25 points, or 3%, to 4,314.5.
Macy's shares popped more than 5% during extended trading after it announced about 3,000 job losses as part of a plan to slash costs.
The global market selloff is sending many heavyweight stocks down in premarket trading. PayPal is trading 3% lower, as are shares in Bank of America and Citigroup.
Netflix, which announced a global expansion on Wednesday, is down 3.2%. Amazon is down 3%.
Apple slumped 3.5% pre-market, continuing its poor start to the year after reports that the company is slowing production of its latest iPhones.
The U.S. Department of Labor's weekly report on jobless insurance claims is due out this morning.
Companies reporting before the open include retailers Walgreen's, and Finish Line, and Constellation Brands, the company behind Corona beer..
The FTSE 100 is down 3% and Germany's Dax has dropped 3.75% in early trading. Asian markets ended the session lower. Hong Kong closed 3% down, while Japan's Nikkei was 3.2%
China suspended trading abruptly on its stock markets for the second time this week. Markets shut within 30 minutes of opening, after a fall of 7%.
Investors are growing increasingly worried about China, after two reports this week indicated that growth may be slowing more sharply than expected. The yuan has fallen to its weakest level since March 2011
Oil prices sank 89 cents to $33.08 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices hiked $9.50 to $1,103.17 U.S. an ounce.
