Futures for stocks in Canada’s biggest market fell on Friday as sentiment was weighed by U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to slap new tariffs on China over the novel coronavirus crisis and lower oil prices.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index slumped 302.47 points, or 2%, to close Thursday and the month of April at 14,925.64. On the month, the index gained 1,401 points, or 10.5%.
The Canadian dollar let go of 0.3 cents early Friday to 71.35 cents U.S.
June futures sank 1.5% Friday.
Restaurant Brands International posted an over 26%-jump in first-quarter comparable sales at Popeyes on Friday, but said that sales at its breakfast and coffee chain Tim Hortons were hit due to coronavirus-led restrictions.
Barrick Gold Corp said on Friday it welcomed a court ruling ordering the Papua New Guinea (PNG) government to negotiate over a lease extension for the Porgera gold mine.
RBC raised the target price on Altagas to $19.00 from $13.00
CIBC cut the target price Canadian Tire Corporation to $130.00 from $134.00
Canaccord Genuity cut the target price on Great-West Lifeco to $24.00 from $35.00
On the economic calendar, Markit Canada releases its Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index around 9:30 a.m. this morning.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange docked 5.62 points Thursday to 471.74, an improvement of 81.34 points, or 20.84%, since March 31.
ON WALLSTREET
Stock futures fell sharply early Friday as shares of Amazon and Apple dropped following their first-quarter results.
Futures for Dow Jones Industrials plummeted 479 points, or 2%, early Friday to 23,751.
Futures for the S&P 500 faded 61 points, or 2.1%, at 2,841.50.
Futures for the NASDAQ Composite sank 219.25 points, or 2.4%, to 8,769.25.
Apple reported quarterly earnings that topped analyst expectations, but its revenue growth remained flat on a year-over-year basis. Also, the company did not offer guidance for the quarter ending in June amid uncertainty over the coronavirus outbreak. The tech giant’s stock traded more than 3% lower in pre-market trading.
Amazon, another tech giant, saw its shares tumble 6% in pre-market trading after announcing plans to spend all its second-quarter profits on its coronavirus response. The e-commerce behemoth also posted a first-quarter profit that missed analyst expectations.
Both Apple and Amazon are among the companies that led the S&P 500’s comeback from the late-March lows and were two of the best performers in April. Amazon rallied nearly 27% in April while Apple jumped 15.3%.
Wall Street was coming off its biggest monthly surge in over 30 years, with the S&P 500 gaining 12.7% while the Dow advanced 11.1%. It was the third-biggest monthly gain for the S&P 500 since World War II.
The Dow had its fourth-largest post-war monthly rally and its best month in 33 years.The NASDAQ closed 15.5% higher for April, logging in its biggest one-month gain since June 2000.
Those gains were partly driven by hopes of reopening the economy sooner than expected.
Stocks that would benefit most from that reopening jumped at the end of March, including Carnival Corp, MGM Resorts and Kohl’s. However, those shares were back deeply in the red in pre-market trading Friday.
Hope for a potential treatment for the coronavirus has also helped the market make a comeback. Earlier in the week, Gilead Sciences said a study of its remdesivir drug conducted by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases met its primary endpoint.
The number of new infections around the world has also fallen in recent weeks, leading some countries and U.S. states to slowly reopen their economies.
Overseas, markets in Japan stumbled, with the Nikkei 225 off 2.8%. Markets in Hong Kong were closed for May Day.
Oil prices gained $1.03 to $19.87 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices doffed six dollars to $1,688.20 U.S. an ounce.