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.
Stock markets around the world have been steady for the most part overnight with many traders either on holiday or preparing for the holidays. U.S. index futures and the Dax are flat or down this morning while the FTSE is down 0.2 per cent. The Dow continues to flirt with the 20,000 level, holding above the 19,900 level this morning.
The spotlight for today is on crude oil which is up 0.6 per cent so far today with natural gas jumping 2.2 per cent. A big 4.2 million barrels of oil (mmbbl) drawdown offset last week's surprise American Petroleum Institute increase, which was an outlier as it was not confirmed by the U.S. Department of Energy anyway. Oil may remain active through DOE inventories due mid-morning with the street expecting a 2.5 mmbbl drawdown.
Spain's IBEX is down 1.0 per cent today dragged down by its banking sector following a European Court of Justice ruling ordering banks to return money to customers related to interest rate floors on mortgages. The impact of this news appears contained to Spain as the euro is up slightly today.
In currency action, gold and the yen are also up a bit while the pound and the Canadian dollar are trading down slightly. Thursday brings a flurry of data from several countries before scheduled news drops off for the rest of 2016.
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)
Dow +0.02 per cent; S&P 500 -0.09 per cent; Nasdaq: -0.08 per cent; TSX 60 -0.08 per cent
Equities
Japan's Nikkei -0.26 per cent
Shanghai composite index +1.15 per cent
Hong Kong's Hang Seng +0.37 per cent
Germany's DAX -0.06 per cent
London's FTSE -0.14 per cent
France's CAC 40 -0.52 per cent
Commodities
WTI crude oil (Nymex Jan.) +0.56 per cent at $53.60 (U.S.) a barrel
Gold (Comex Feb.) +0.33 per cent at $1,137.30 (U.S.) an ounce
Copper (Comex March) +0.01 per cent at $2.51 (U.S.) a pound
Currencies
Canadian dollar -0.04 at 74.77 cents (U.S.)
U.S. dollar index -0.37 at 102.92
Bonds
Canada 10-year bond yield -0.03 at 1.8 per cent
KEY ECONOMIC RELEASES
Japan all-industry activity index
Euro Area consumer confidence
(8:30 a.m. ET) Canada Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours for October.
(10 a.m. ET) U.S. existing home sales for November. Consensus projection is an annualized rate decline of 1.4 per cent.
(10:30 a.m. ET) EIA Petroleum Status Report
Earnings include: Accenture PLC; Bed Bath & Beyond Inc.; Micron Technology Inc.; Paychex Inc.; Red Hat Inc.
KEY STOCKS TO WATCH
Also see: Wednesday's small-cap stocks to watch
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Nike shares rose 2.4 per cent to $53.02 in premarket trading, a day after the world's largest footwear maker reported better-than-expected quarterly revenue and profit.
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FedEx fell 3.8 per cent to $191.25 after the package delivery company's quarterly results missed expectations.
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Chipmaker InvenSense jumped 16.8 per cent to $12.66 after people familiar with the matter told Reuters that Japanese electronic parts maker TDK Corp is in talks to buy the company.
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Indian telecommunications carrier Reliance Communications Ltd. said it had signed a binding pact with Canada's Brookfield Infrastructure Partners LP for selling a stake in its mobile phone tower business.
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Two environmental groups on Tuesday filed for a judicial review of the Canadian government's decision to approve Kinder Morgan Inc.'s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, the first legal challenge to the project since it received the green light last month.
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Amgen raised its quarterly dividend by 15 per cent to $1.15 per share.
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Twitter's Chief Technology Officer Adam Messinger is leaving the company after five years.
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Microsoft was awarded a $927-million information technology support contract by the Department of Defense.
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Amazon.com was hit by a strike at its German warehouses in a dispute over pay and working conditions by its 11,000 employees there. The strike is scheduled to run until Dec. 24.
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Coca-Cola bought Anheuser-Busch InBev's 54.5-per-cent stake in Africa's largest Coca-Cola bottler for $3.15-billion. The deal represented the last condition the beer brewer needed to fulfill as part of its purchase of rival SABMiller.
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Stanley Black & Decker has sold the majority of its mechanical security businesses to Swiss security firm Dormakaba for $725-million.
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Winnebago reported quarterly profit of 42 cents per share, 11 cents a share above estimates. Revenue also beat forecasts.
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Accenture beat estimates by nine cents a share, with quarterly profit of $1.58 per share. Revenue fell shy of estimates, however, and Accenture also cut its fiscal 2017 outlook.
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Athletic footwear and apparel retailer Finish Line posted a bigger-than-expected loss and lower-than-expected revenue, in a quarter the company called "disappointing."
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Procter & Gamble was cut to "hold" from "buy" at Stifel Nicolaus, which pointed to the potential negative effects of a strong dollar.
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Monster Beverage was upgraded to "buy" from "hold" at Jefferies.
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Canaccord Genuity cut its target price on Amaya Inc. to $28 from $42.
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Canaccord Genuity raised its target price on SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. to $67 from $53.
With files from wire services