Futures for stocks in Canada’s largest market were nearly flat in early trade on Thursday, as crude and bullion prices fell due to a stronger U.S. dollar after the Federal Reserve signaled earlier-than-expected interest rate increase.
The TSX Composite index faded from Tuesday’s all-time high by 0.36 points to close the session Wednesday at 20,230.96.
The Canadian dollar slumped 0.40 cents to 81.03 cents U.S.
June futures were down 0.04% Thursday.
National Bank of Canada raised the price target on Alimentation Couche-Tard to $49.00 from $47.00
Credit Suisse raised the rating on Enbridge Inc. to outperform from neutral.
Credit Suisse cut the rating to neutral from outperform.
On the economic slate, Statistics Canada reported Canadian investment in foreign securities totaled $18.6 billion in April, mainly in purchases of US securities.
Meanwhile, foreign investment in Canadian securities totaled $10.0 billion, led by acquisitions of Canadian bonds. As a result, international transactions in securities generated a net outflow of funds from the Canadian economy of $8.7 billion.
Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem says the central bank is starting to see signs that the country’s red hot housing market is cooling down, although a return to a normality will take time.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange lost 6.96 points Wednesday to 962.26.
ON WALLSTREET
Stock futures fell slightly on Thursday, a day after the Federal Reserve’s rate outlook sparked a selloff.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrials dropped 82 points, or 0.2%, to 33,823.
Futures for the S&P 500 slipped 13.5 points to 4,199.50.
Futures for the NASDAQ Composite swooned 62.25 points, or 0.5%, to 13,910.50.
Materials stocks were set to drop on Thursday as higher rates may further take the air out of a big commodities rally in 2021. China is also cracking down on the commodities surge to ease inflation fears. Freeport-McMoRan led materials stocks lower in pre-market trading, down 2%. Copper futures were off by 2%.
Some once-hot tech stocks were lower in pre-market trading with Zoom Video and Tesla down by about 1%.
Wells Fargo and Citigroup were higher in pre-market trading on hopes higher rates will boost profits for banks.
U.S. stocks fell Wednesday afternoon after the Fed moved up its timeline for rate hikes, seeing two increases in 2023. The central bank also said it sees inflation hitting 3.4% this year, well above its 2% long-term goal.
Overseas, in Japan, the Nikkei 225 slid 0.9%, while in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index gained 0.4%.
Oil prices dipped 19 cents to $71.96 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices $71.70 to $1,789.70 U.S.