Futures for Canada's main stock index edged lower on Friday, tracking gold prices and ahead of the closely watched U.S. jobs data.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index fell 6.46 points to end Thursday at 15,621.47
The Canadian dollar slipped 0.11 cents to 77.7 cents U.S. early Friday
June futures were down 0.05% Friday
Enbridge has agreed to pay $1.86 million in penalties for an alleged failure in inspecting certain lines within its Lakehead pipeline system.
RBC raised the target price on Baytex Energy to $6.00 from $5.00
National Bank of Canada raised the target price on Imperial Oil to $40 from $38
CIBC raised the rating on Manulife Financial to outperform from neutral
On the economic front, Western University’s IVEY School of Business releases its Purchasing Managers Index at 10 a.m.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange stayed negative 0.86 points Thursday to 771.25
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Friday, as investors awaited the latest U.S. non-farm payrolls data.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 53 points, or 0.2%, to 23,855
S&P 500 futures doffed 6.75 points, or 0.3%, to 2,625, while futures for the NASDAQ composite index deferred 20.25 points, or 0.3%, to 6,644.25
In the corporate space, Alibaba, Celgene and Virtu Financial are some of the major names set to publish financial results.
Members of the United States' delegation will continue trade negotiations in China. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said Friday that the U.S. trade delegation had had positive talks with China so far. A breakthrough deal between the nations on altering China's economic policies, however, is unlikely.
At 8:30 a.m. ET today, non-farm payrolls data, unemployment figures and average hourly wages will be released. Market participants will be paying close attention to the figures to see what they say about the current state of the U.S. economy.
In April, economists estimated that 192,000 jobs were created and that the unemployment rate could have fallen to 4%. In March, the U.S. economy added 103,000 jobs, well below market expectations of 193,000 Friday's jobs report can be an important factor in helping to determine the Federal Reserve's rate hike path.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index dropped 1.3%, while markets in Japan were closed for holiday.
Oil prices gained 18 cents to $68.61 U.S. per barrel.
Gold prices dipped $1.40 to $1,311.30 U.S. an ounce.
