Colin Cieszynski
The Before the Bell report is compiled by editors of The Globe and Mail and is updated throughout the morning to reflect latest developments. Colin Cieszynski, Chartered Financial Analyst and Chartered Market Technician, is chief market strategist with CMC Markets.
For the most part overnight trading has been typical for a U.S. holiday. Stocks have been relatively steady with the Nikkei up 0.9 per cent, the Dax flat, and the FTSE down 0.3 per cent. WTI and Brent crude oil are up 0.2 per cent.
Currency markets have remained active overnight as the reaction of Wednesday's big data-driven breakout in the U.S. dollar continued to work its way through world markets. The greenback extended its gains overnight but into the morning the bulls have relented a bit. This has enabled gold to stabilize at a lower level while the Canadian dollar, yen, euro and British pound have been able to recover slightly. Japanese flash manufacturing was slightly below expectations, German GDP was in-line and the German IFO business survey was mixed.
The big star overnight has been copper which has resumed its uptrend in a big way with its recent correction over. This action indicates traders are expecting an upturn in demand for materials moving forward. This could keep a tailwind behind mining stocks.
It's common on days when the U.S. is closed and Canada is open for the Canadian market to trade slightly higher on light volumes. Today the focus may remain on resource sectors between the copper rally and gold plunge of the last 24 hours plus speculation in the oil sector ahead of next week's big OPEC meeting.
Now, here is a closer look at what's going on this morning and what is still to come.
MARKET DATA:
Futures (as of about 7:30 a.m. ET)
U.S. markets are closed for the Thanksgiving holiday.
TSX 60 +0.12 per cent
Equities
Japan's Nikkei +0.94 per cent
Shanghai composite index +0.01 per cent
Hong Kong's Hang Seng -0.30 per cent
Germany's DAX +0.06 per cent
London's FTSE -0.21 per cent
France's CAC 40 -0.10 per cent
Commodities
WTI crude oil (Nymex Jan.) +0.25 per cent at $48.08 (U.S.) a barrel
Gold (Comex Feb.) -0.18 per cent at $1,190.30 (U.S.) an ounce
Copper (Comex March) +1.95 per cent at $2.67 (U.S.) a pound
Currencies
Canadian dollar +0.08 at 74.12 cents (U.S.)
U.S. dollar index -0.16 at 101.54
Bonds
Canada 10-year bond yield +4.27. at 1.58 per cent
KEY ECONOMIC RELEASES
U.S. markets closed -- Thanksgiving
Japan November manufacturing PMI and September leading index.
Germany real GDP for the third quarter.
(8:30 a.m. ET) Canada survey of employment, payrolls and hours for September.
KEY STOCKS TO WATCH
Also see: Thursday's small-cap stocks to watch
Earnings include: Titan Logix Corp.; Valener Inc.
With files from wire services