Stock futures pointed to a higher opening for stocks in Canada’s largest market on Friday as oil prices extended gains ahead of the monthly U.S. jobs data.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 105.72 points to conclude Thursday at 13,123.65, pushing the six-day gain to 3.1%. March futures, meanwhile, progressed Friday by 0.3%.
The Canadian dollar dipped 0.02 cents to 74.56 cents U.S. early Friday.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau persuaded premiers of the country's 10 provinces on Thursday to accept the concept of putting a price on carbon but agreed the specific details could be worked out later.
RBC cut the target price on Black Diamond Group to $6.50 from $7.00 with sector perform rating
CIBC upped the target price on Canadian Natural Resources to $40.00 from $36.00, with an outperform rating
CIBC raised the target price on SNC-Lavalin Group to $48.00 from $47.00
On the economic front, Statistics Canada reported that this country’s imports increased 1.1% in January to $46.7 billion. Exports totaled $46.0 billion, up 1.0% from December. Consequently, Canada's merchandise trade deficit with the world widened from $631 million in December to $655 million in January.
Later this morning, Western University in London, Ontario comes out with its Ivey Purchasing Managers’ Index for February.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange picked up 6.67 points Thursday to 552.90
ON WALLSTREET
Stock futures in New York are steady, in the wake of U.S. jobs numbers.
Ahead of the opening bell, futures for the Dow Jones Industrials took on 28 points, or 0.2%, to 16,947, futures for the S&P 500 inched up three points, or 0.2%, to 1,993.5. NASDAQ futures gained 13.25 points, or 0.3%, to 4,333.5.
Movie theater chain AMC Theaters is set to become the biggest in the world after it announced it would acquire Carmike Cinemas for $1.1 billion U.S. AMC is controlled by Dalian Wanda Group, which is owned by China's richest man, Wang Jianlin.
Elsewhere, travel bag maker Samsonite is buying its upscale American rival Tumi in a deal worth around $1.8 billion U.S.
Shares in Intuit could see higher-than-normal trading volumes after the company announced it would sell Quicken, which makes personal finance software, in a management buyout backed by a private equity firm.
Shares in Chesapeake Energy were shooting higher pre-market, following a 26% surge on Thursday. The company has been embroiled in legal troubles for a while.
H&R Block stock is sinking in extended trading after the company reported weaker-than-expected earnings.
On the flip side, Hewlett Packard Enterprise shares are rising after beating earnings expectations. HP and Hewlett Packard Enterprise split into two different companies in November.
The American economy added a healthy 242,000 jobs in February, far better than its gains of 172,000 in January. Economists had predicted a gain of 190,000 jobs in February.
Unemployment stayed at 4.9% last month, the lowest mark since February 2008.
European markets aren't making any major moves in early trading, while most Asian markets ended the week with gains.
Oil prices gained 27 cents to $34.84 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices fell $5.32 to $1,258.93 U.S. an ounce.
