Futures for Canada’s main stock exchange were lower on Thursday as fears of a coronavirus-driven recession offset a bounce in crude oil prices.
The TSX Composite Index tumbled 963.46 points, or 7.6%, to close Wednesday at 11,721.75
The Canadian dollar capsized 0.57 cents early Thursday to 68.57 cents U.S.
March futures dipped 1.5% early Thursday.
Husky Energy and Norwegian-based Equinor have decided to postpone the Bay du Nord project off Canada due to the fall in oil prices.
Canadian Natural Resources on Wednesday slashed its full-year capital expenditure budget by $1.09 billion due to weakness in oil prices, but maintained its output forecast.
Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc beat quarterly revenue estimates on Tuesday, helped by its home delivery options and store improvements including technology at checkout and new coffee machines.
Scotiabank cut the price target on AG Growth International to $35.00 from $53.00
Altacorp Capital raised the rating on Boyd Group Services to outperform from sector perform.
Scotiabank cut the price target on Interfor to $16.00 from $19.50
On the economic beat, Statistics Canada new housing price index was up 0.4% at the national level in February.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange deducted 35.91 points, or 9.6%, Wednesday to 338.81.
ON WALLSTREET
Futures contracts tied to the major U.S. stock indexes pointed to slight losses at the open Thursday morning after gyrating in overnight trading.
Futures for Dow Jones Industrials let loose 503 points, or 2.5%, early Thursday to 19,350.
Futures for the S&P 500 slipped 57.75 points, or 2.4%, at 2,343.75.
Futures for the NASDAQ Composite slumped 102.25 points, on 1.4%, to 7,103.25.
Overnight, stock futures had pointed to strong gains.
Traders also looked ahead to the release of weekly jobless claims at 8:30 a.m. EDT to assess some of the economic damage from the coronavirus on the U.S. economy.
The spread of the coronavirus also led the New York Stock Exchange to on Wednesday announced that it will temporarily close its historic trading floor and move fully to electronic trading. The exchange said that two people tested positive for the disease at screenings it conducted this week.
All-electronic trading will begin on March 23 at the open, the exchange said.
Overseas, in Japan, the Nikkei 225 retreated 1% Thursday, while in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index slipped 2.6%.
Oil prices gained $1.95 to $22.32 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices took on $3.20 to $1,481.10 U.S. an ounce.
