Futures Gain Some Ground Friday
The TSX Composite gained 61.71 points Thursday to 20,756.73.
March futures poked 0.1% Friday.
The Canadian dollar hiked 0.08 cents to 74.23 cents U.S.
Royal Bank of Canada said it plans to raise $750 million by issuing preferred shares to certain institutional investors.
Richelieu Hardware was downgraded to "sector perform" from "outperform" by the National Bank of Canada after the specialty hardware manufacturer reported its fourth-quarter results.
Retail trade leads off things macroeconomic this morning, the figure decreasing 0.2% to $66.6 billion in November. Sales were down in four of nine subsectors and were led by decreases at food and beverage retailers.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange fell 2.8 points on Thursday’s session to 551.18.
ON WALLSTREET
Stock futures rose Friday as investors looked to build on the strong tech-led gains seen in the previous session.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrials leaped 227 points, or 0.6% to 37,886.
Futures for the S&P 500 rose 28.25 points, or 0.6%, at 4,839.50.
Futures for the NASDAQ popped 135.25 points, or 0.8%, to 17,248.25.
Stocks moved sharply higher Thursday, with the S&P 500 and NASDAQ erasing their 2024 losses. The S&P 500 closed Thursday about 0.3% away from its record close reached in January 2022 and around 0.8% from a new intraday record. If the gain in morning futures holds, the benchmark could post a new record close on Friday.
Shares of insurance company Travelers jumped more than 4% in the premarket after posting an earnings beat. Schlumberger N.V. added 1.6% after reporting better-than-expected revenue in the fourth quarter.
Shares of iRobot plunged about 40% after The Wall Street Journal reported that the European Commission would likely reject Amazon’s bid to acquire the Roomba manufacturer.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 gained 1.4 % Friday, while in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index slid 0.5%.
Oil prices faded 28 cents to $73.80 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices jumped $16.00 to $2,037.60 U.S. an ounce.
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