Canadian investors must be licking their chops on Thursday morning, awaiting the opening bell when they will at last be able to trade the two stocks that have been carving out the biggest headlines: Research In Motion Ltd. and Bombardier Inc.
In the morning, Bombardier announced strong fourth-quarter earnings of 12 cents a share, walloping the forecast of 8 cents a share. Its shares closed at $5.60 in Toronto on Wednesday, down 3 cents.
RIM also beat expectations with its fourth quarter results, released Wednesday after markets closed. Its shares ended the day at $117.63, down $2.47. Jeffrey Fan, an analyst at UBS, increased his 12-month target for the New York-traded shares to $165 (U.S.) from $155 previously.
In the U.S., stock index futures pointed lower prior to the start of trading. Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average fell 44 points to 12,575, a possible carry-over from Wednesday's concerns about a U.S. recession. Futures for the broader S&P 500 fell 8 points to 1363.
Initial jobless claims, released in the morning, were worse than expected, with 38,000 people filing claims. That brings the total to 407,000, much higher than the expected total of 366,000. At 10 am (ET), investors will once again be focused on the U.S. Federal Reserve during testimony before the Senate Banking Committee.
In Europe, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 fell 0.5 per cent and Germany's DAX fell 0.6 per cent. In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 1.5 per cent in overnight trading.
