Futures Eke Higher Thursday
The TSX Composite staggered 75.13 points Wednesday at 21,243.77.
March futures were up 0.1% Thursday.
The Canadian dollar sank 0.07 cents to 73.58 cents U.S.
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce exceeded estimates for first-quarter profit, while TD Bank Group reported declines in its first-quarter profit as the bank set aside higher provisions for potential bad debts.
Royal Bank of Canada and Bank of Montreal also said in the results reported earlier in the week that they had built larger provisions to prepare for soured loans.
Meanwhile, Canadian Natural Resources beat fourth-quarter profit estimates on Thursday, helped by record production.
On the economic slate, Statistics Canada reported real gross domestic product (GDP) was essentially unchanged in December, following two months of growth, despite 14 of 20 sectors increasing in the month.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange slid 1.13 points Wednesday to 554.59.
ON WALLSTREET
Stock futures fell as Wall Street weighed the latest earnings results and looked ahead to the Federal Reserve’s favored inflation gauge.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrials tumbled 126 points, or 0.3%, to 38,867.
Futures for the S&P 500 fell 14.75 points, or 0.3%, at 5,066.25.
Futures for the NASDAQ slid 46.5 points, or 0.3%, to 17,868.75.
Salesforce slipped 0.5% on weak revenue guidance, while Snowflake shed nearly 23% after announcing the retirement of its CEO and sharing disappointing product revenue guidance. Okta popped 25.2% on strong results.
The back end of earnings season continues Thursday with results from Best Buy, Hewlett Packard Enterprises and Bath & Body Works.
Wall Street anxiously awaits Thursday’s personal consumer expenditures reading for January. Economists are bracing for a 0.3% monthly gain and a 2.4% year-over-year move. A higher-than-expected print could dent equities and signal that recent hot consumer price index and producer price index releases were on trend.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 erased 0.1% Thursday, while in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index stepped back 0.2%.
Oil prices jumped 19 cents to $78.73 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices sank $3.70 to $2,039 U.S. an ounce.
Provided Content: Content provided by Baystreet. The Globe and Mail was not involved, and material was not reviewed prior to publication.
