Futures for equities in Canada’s largest centre were lower on Tuesday, as rising worries about a new virus in China prompted a flight to safe-haven assets and oil prices fell on easing supply concerns.
The TSX Composite Index gained 38.37 points to close Monday at 17,597.39.
The Canadian dollar fell 0.09 cents to 76.56 cents U.S.
March futures slumped 0.2% early Tuesday.
National Bank of Canada raised the target price on Boyd Group Services to $240.00 from $205.00
National Bank of Canada cut the target price on Enerplus to $13.50 from $15.00
On the economic slate, Statistics Canada reported that manufacturing sales declined 0.6% to $57.0 billion in November, the third consecutive monthly decrease.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange gained 1.41 points to finish off Monday to 585.91.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stock index futures dipped on Tuesday as Wall Street was set to pull back from record levels set in the previous session.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrials scaled back 51 points, or 0.2%, early Tuesday to 29,226.
Futures for the S&P 500 docked 9.25 points, or 0.3%, at 3,315.75.
Futures for the NASDAQ Composite slid 30.75 points, or 0.3%, to 9,143.75.
Markets were closed Monday for Martin Luther King Day.
In corporate news, Boeing is in talks with banks to borrow $10 billion amid the spiraling costs of two crashes involving its beleaguered 737 Max aircraft.
This year, continued optimism around U.S.-China trade relations along with dissipating fears of a global economic recession have built on the 2019 gains.
However, concerns over a new strain of pneumonia in China drove some risk-off sentiment Tuesday.
The outbreak of the new coronavirus in China has killed four people with confirmed cases exceeding 200 ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, during which hundreds of millions of people are expected to travel. Late on Monday, Chinese authorities confirmed that the virus is contagious.
Overseas, in Japan, the Nikkei 225 fell 0.9% Tuesday, while in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index tumbled 2.8%
Oil prices doffed 84 cents to $57.70 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices sank $4.10 to $1,556.20 U.S. an ounce.
