Before the Bell: What every Canadian investor needs to know today - The Globe and Mail

Equities

Global markets ticked higher as investors awaited U.S. economic data and comments from Federal Reserve officials later in the day for more clarity on the central bank’s roadmap for interest rate cuts.

Wall Street futures were mixed, with the Nasdaq pointing marginally higher. U.S. markets will be closed tomorrow for the Juneteenth holiday.

TSX futures were flat after Canada’s main stock market closed lower yesterday, with higher bond yields putting pressure on dividend stocks.

“Today, all eyes are on the U.S. retail sales and industrial production data. A softer-than-expected set of figures could fuel the Fed doves, while stronger-than-expected data could fuel the goldilocks optimism. If investors want to see the glass half full, they will find a reason to do so,” Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank, wrote in a note.

Overseas, the pan-European STOXX 600 was 0.38 per cent higher in morning trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 advanced 0.4 per cent, Germany’s DAX added 0.17 per cent and France’s CAC 40 gained 0.37 per cent.

In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei closed 1 per cent higher at 38,482.11, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 0.1 per cent to 17,915.55.

Commodities

Oil prices were largely stable as traders awaited signs of a hoped-for summer demand boost to prop up prices even as strong supply threatens to blunt gains.

Brent crude futures were down 0.05 per cent to US$84.22 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures declined 0.05 per cent to US$80.29 a barrel. Both benchmarks gained about 2 per cent yesterday, closing at their highest levels since April.

“The oil market shifted its focus back to fundamentals, which have been soft for some time,” said BoFA commodity and derivatives strategist Francisco Blanch in a note, adding that global crude oil inventories and refined product storage in the United States and Singapore, among other places, was higher.

In other commodities, spot gold dipped 0.37 per cent to US$2,310 an ounce.

Currencies and bonds

The Canadian dollar weakened against its U.S. counterpart, which edged higher in early trading.

The day range on the loonie was 72.68 US cents to 72.94 US cents in the early premarket period. The Canadian dollar was down about 0.67 per cent against the greenback over the past month.

The U.S. dollar index, which weighs the greenback against a group of currencies, was up 0.2 per cent to 105.54.

The euro was last down 0.2 per cent to US$1.0713. The British pound fell 0.24 per cent to US$1.2671.

In bonds, the yield on the U.S. 10-year note edged higher to 4.294 per cent ahead of the North American opening bell.

Economic news

Euro zone CPI

(8:30 a.m. ET) Canada’s CPI: Updated Basket Weights

(8:30 a.m. ET) U.S. retail sales for May. The Street is projecting a rise of 0.3 per cent from April (or 0.2 per cent excluding automobiles).

(9:15 a.m. ET) U.S. industrial production for May. Consensus is a rise of 0.4 per cent from April with capacity utilization increasing 0.2 per cent to 78.6 per cent.

(10 a.m. ET) U.S. business inventories for April. The consensus estimate is a rise of 0.3 per cent from March.

With Reuters and The Canadian Press

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2024-06-18 09:28:00Z
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