Futures for Canada’s main stock index slipped on Thursday, following release of the country’s Gross Domestic Product data.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index popped 429.82 points, or 2.9%, to finish Wednesday at 15,228.11.
The Canadian dollar inched higher 0.05 cents early Thursday to 72.10 cents U.S.
June futures slipped 0.1% Thursday.
Canopy Growth Corp said on Wednesday it would lay off 200 employees in North America and the U.K., according to an internal announcement.
CIBC raised the target price on Alamos Gold to $14.00 from $11.75
CIBC raised the target price on CGI to $88.00 from $84.00
Canaccord Genuity raised the target price on Maple Leaf Foods to $39.00 from $36.00
It’s a busy day on the economic calendar.
Statistics Canada reported that, following three months of growth, real gross domestic product was essentially unchanged in February, as declines particularly in educational services, and disruptions in the transportation and warehousing sector stalled the economy.
The agency says declines particularly in educational services, and disruptions in the transportation and warehousing sector stalled the economy. Excluding these two sectors, the economy would have grown 0.2%. Overall, 13 out of the 20 sectors increased in February.
The agency is also saying its March industrial product price index was down 0.9% in March, driven primarily by lower prices for refined petroleum energy products, while the Raw Materials Price Index fell 15.6%, mostly due to lower prices for crude oil.
Meantime, the average weekly earnings of non-farm payroll employees were $1,046 in February, little changed from January. On a year-over-year basis, earnings rose 3.7%, mostly the result of increases observed from May to October 2019.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange gained 6.47 points, or 1.4%, Thursday to 477.36.
ON WALLSTREET
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 were headed for a lower open on Thursday as Wall Street wrapped up its best month in decades.
Futures for Dow Jones Industrials faded 145 points, or 0.6%, early Thursday to 24,421. Stocks surged on Wednesday on Wednesday. The Dow is up 12% in April, which would be its best month since 1987.
Futures for the S&P 500 slid 15.5 points, or 0.5%, at 2,925.50. The index is up more than 13% for the month and on track for its biggest one-month gain since 1974.
Futures for the NASDAQ Composite gained 16.25 points, or 0.2%, to 9,052.75. Tech stocks rose in pre-market trading, led by Facebook and Microsoft which issued better-than-expected revenue projections in their earnings reports.
Both Facebook and Microsoft reported promising revenue figures despite the global coronavirus outbreak.
Facebook soared more than 9% in pre-market trading after it reported that, after an initial “significant” pullback in advertising revenues in March thanks to COVID-19, it’s seen sales stabilize in the first three weeks of April. It reported first-quarter per-share earnings of $1.71 and revenues of $17.74 billion.
Microsoft rose about 2% in pre-market trading after the company reported fiscal third-quarter sales growth of 15% thanks to growth in its cloud business. The software giant said in a statement that the disease “had minimal net impact on the total company revenue” in the three months ended March 31, but cautioned that “effects of COVID-19 may not be fully reflected in the financial results until future periods.”
Investors cited developments at Gilead Sciences for the market’s pop during Wednesday’s session after the biotech company reported positive results from two tests that showed its drug remdesivir could be a COVID-19 treatment. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said remdesivir shows a “clear-cut” positive effect when treating the virus.
U.S. traders will on Thursday pore over Washington’s latest report on jobless claims. Another 3.5 million workers are expected to have filed for benefits last week, which would bring the total number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits over the last six weeks to about 30 million.
The U.S. Labor Department’s prior jobless claims report — released April 23 — showed the number of Americans who had filed for unemployment insurance benefits over the previous five weeks was 26.45 million.
That number exceeded the 22.442 million positions added to the American economy since November 2009, when the U.S. economy began to add jobs back to the economy after the Great Recession.
Overseas, markets in Japan came back from holiday, with the Nikkei 225 triumphing 2.1%. Markets in Hong Kong were closed for holiday.
Oil prices jumped $2.38 to $17.44 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices improved $15.30 to $1,728.70 U.S. an ounce.