The Before the Bell report is constantly updated to reflect the latest news developments and market moves in the premarket. Check back later for updates.
Stock futures are suggesting a positive start to trading on Wall Street today, despite another push lower in crude prices to fresh six-year lows. as a bottom in oil remains elusive.
Futures for the S&P 500 and Dow are both up roughly half a percentage point, but only up 0.1 per cent for the TSX, which faces even more headwinds because of the energy-heavy weighting of the index.
European trading is setting a positive backdrop, with the Stoxx 600 index up nearly 1 per cent, as speculation continues to swirl on that side of the Atlantic that the European Central Bank is preparing a full-scale U.S.-style bond-buying program later this month. Today brought weak wholesale prices data in Germany and consumer prices in Greece - underlining the need for central bank intervention to stem deflationary trends.
The March U.S. crude futures contract is down about 2.5 per cent ahead of the opening bell after sinking to a nearly six-year low of $44.78 (U.S.) per barrel earlier this morning. The decline comes amid more signs that Middle East crude supplies will continue unabated, with the United Arab Emirates' oil minister saying OPEC will keep to its decision to maintain current oil output levels, regardless of crude prices. Goldman Sachs Monday said crude needs to drop to $40 a barrel to re-balance the market. A major focus now will be on the U.S. Energy Informational Administration inventories data on Wednesday, which a Bloomberg survey suggests will show stockpiles rising by 1.75 million barrels last week. Some crude traders are no doubt positioning ahead of that data.
Alcoa kicked off the unofficial start to the fourth-quarter earnings season Monday night with better-than-expected earnings and sales. While a positive start, earnings expectations overall for this quarter have been in rapid decline in recent weeks as oil plunged; analysts forecast earnings at S&P 500 companies rose 2 per cent in the final quarter of 2014, down from October estimates of 8.5 per cent.
Now, here's a closer look at what's going on this morning and what is still to come.
MARKETS:
Futures:
S&P 500 +0.48 per cent; Dow +0.50 per cent; Nasdaq +0.56 per cent; S&P/TSX +0.13 per cent
Equities:
Hong Kong's Hang Seng +0.79 per cent
Shanghai composite index +0.18 per cent
Japan's Nikkei -0.64 per cent
London's FTSE 100 +0.59 per cent
Germany's DAX +1.19 per cent
France's CAC 40 +1.11 per cent
Stoxx 600 +0.92 per cent
Commodities:
WTI crude oil (Nymex Mar) -3.06 per cent at $45.35 (U.S.) a barrel
Natural gas (Nymex Mar) +3.83 per cent at $2.90
Gold (Comex Feb) +0.54 per cent at $1,239.40 (U.S.) an ounce
Copper (Comex Mar) -2.97 per cent at $2.64 (U.S.) a pound
Currencies:
Canadian dollar at 83.44 (U.S.), down 0.0006
U.S. dollar index up 0.29 at 92.27
Bonds:
U.S. 10-year Treasury yield 1.88 per cent, down 0.03
ECONOMIC INDICATORS:
No major reports scheduled.
STOCKS TO WATCH:
Goldcorp will take an impairment charge of up to $2.7-billion on its new Cerro Negro mine in Argentina in the fourth quarter, the world's biggest gold miner by value said late Monday as it also announced that 2014 output was below its own forecast.
Alcoa shares are up 2 per cent in the premarket. Its adjusted earnings per share were 33 cents, exceeding the average analyst estimate of 28 cents. Revenue rose 14 per cent to $6.4-billion, beating analyst forecasts of $6.04-billion.
Other earnings today include: Cogeco Cable, Cogeco Inc., Corus Entertainment, DragonWave, Velan, CSX Corp, KB Home, Linear Tech Corp., Progress Software Corp., Washington Federal Inc.
ANALYST ACTIONS:
Raymond James upgraded Goldcorp to "strong buy" from "outperform" and maintained a $29 (U.S.) price target.
RBC Dominion Securities upgraded Onex to "sector perform" from "underperform" and raised its price target to $74 (Canadian) from $66.
Raymond James upgraded Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers to "outperform" from "market perform" and raised its price target to $30 (U.S.) from $25.
Canaccord upgraded Sirius XM Canada Holdings to "buy" from "hold" and maintained a $7 (Canadian) price target.
Credit Suisse upgraded Apple to "outperform" from "neutral" and raised its price target to $130 (U.S.) from $110.
Citibank upgraded Amazon.com to "buy" from "neutral" and raised its price target to $354 (U.S.) from $325.
THIS MORNING'S TOP INVESTING READS ON THE WEB:
Why America is going to lose the oil price war.
How good was Bill Gross?
The passive investing bubble.
Four tips for trading biotech stocks.
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Have feedback on our daily Before the Bell report and suggestions on how to make it more useful in your investing day? Please contact Inside the Market Editor Darcy Keith at dakeith@globeandmail.com.
Darcy Keith