Futures for equities in Canada’s largest centre fell on Thursday, weighed down by weaker oil prices as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, along with Russia, accepted to ease supply curbs from August.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index heightened 154.88 points, or nearly 1%, to finish Wednesday at 16,063.33.
September futures skidded 0.6% Thursday.
The Canadian dollar fell 0.17 cents Thursday to 73.86 cents U.S.
OPEC and its allies will reduce their production cuts to 7.7 million barrels per day through December from the 9.7 million bpd in place since May.
The Bank of Canada said Wednesday Canada's economic activity will not return to pre-pandemic levels until 2022 and interest rates will remain low for at least two years, as the central bank again held its key overnight rate steady.
Canada's efforts to flatten the curve of coronavirus cases have put the country on the cusp of zero deaths from COVID-19 for the first time since March, but officials see worrying signs of a new spike as provinces lift restrictions.
Scotiabank raised the target price on Savaria to $16.00 from $14.50.
CIBC raises target price on Kinaxis Inc. to $230.00 from $205.00
On the economic beat, Statistics Canada reported foreign investors acquired $22.4 billion of Canadian securities in May, following a record investment of $49.0 billion in April. Meanwhile, Canadian investors added $13.4 billion of foreign securities to their holdings as investment in equities accelerated.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange gained 4.84 points to end Wednesday at 667.39.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stock futures fell on Thursday with investors focused on earnings results and looking ahead to the weekly U.S. jobless claims report.
Futures for Dow Jones Industrials dropped 166 points, or 0.6%, early Thursday, to 26,599.
Futures for the S&P 500 sagged 21 points, or 0.7%, at 3,198.50.
Futures for the NASDAQ faltered 141.5 points, or 1.3%, to 10,541.75.
Bank of America reported better-than-expected earnings for the previous quarter. However, the stock fell more than 2% as the company set aside $4 billion for coronavirus-related losses. Dow member Johnson & Johnson traded 0.8% lower despite posting better-than-expected results.
Morgan Stanley shares rose 0.9% after the company’s quarterly earnings easily beat analyst expectations on the back of strong trading revenues. Netflix is set to report earnings after the bell.
Thursday’s moves came following a major sell-off in mainland Chinese stocks, which saw the Shanghai composite down more than 4% on the day.
That came despite China reporting that the country’s Gross Domestic Product grew 3.2% in the second quarter of the year as compared to a year ago — above expectations of a 2.5% growth by economists in a survey.
In the U.S., traders awaited the release of weekly unemployment claims data. Economists polled by Dow Jones expect 1.25 million people to have filed for unemployment benefits last week.
June’s retail sales number will also be released on Thursday, with economists polled by Dow Jones expecting a 5.2% jump as the economy continued to reopen. May’s 17.7% surge blew past estimates and was the largest reading on record.
Overseas, in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 lost 0.8% Thursday, while in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index fell 2%
Oil prices lost 39 cents to $40.81 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices forked over $8.50 to $1,805.30.
