Futures for equities in Canada’s largest market inched lower on Wednesday as weakness in bullion and recession fears weighed on investor sentiment, with losses limited by a rebound in crude prices.
The S&P/TSX flopped 35.58 points to close Tuesday to 19,222.74.
September futures dipped 0.2% Wednesday.
The Canadian dollar gained 0.1 cents to 77.78 cents U.S.
Exxon Mobil and Canadian partner Imperial Oil said on Tuesday they would sell their Montney and Duvernay assets in Canada to Whitecap Resources for $1.9 billion.
Meanwhile, National Bank raised the price target on Whitecap to $22.00 from $20.00.
Canaccord Genuity cut the rating on Burcon Nutrascience to speculative buy from buy
CIBC cut the rating on Cogeco Communications to neutral from outperform.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange slid 7.45 points, or 1.1%, to 644.91.
ON WALLSTREET
Stock futures were mixed on Wednesday morning, a day after the major averages made a failed attempt at a bounce.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrials added 21 points, or 0.1%, early Wednesday to 30.954.
Futures for the S&P 500 lopped off 1.25 points to 3,824.25.
Futures for the NASDAQ Composite index handed over 13.25 points, or 0.1%, to 11,661.
Carnival Corp slid nearly 8% in premarket trading after Morgan Stanley cut its price target on the stock in half and said it could potentially go to zero in the face of another demand shock. The call dragged other cruise stocks lower. Royal Caribbean lost 4% and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings fell 3%.
In early trading, Bed Bath & Beyond shares plummeted more than 14% after the company posted a huge miss on quarterly earnings and revenue expectations and announced its CEO is stepping down.
Meanwhile, Pinterest shares jumped more than 4% on news that CEO Ben Silbermann is stepping down.
General Mills shares rose more than 2% after the company topped earnings and revenue forecasts for its most recent quarter.
Investors are looking ahead to comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell at the European Central Bank forum. Earnings from Bed Bath & Beyond, General Mills and McCormick are also on deck.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 fell 0.9% Wednesday. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng declined 1.9%
Oil prices gained $1.40 to $113.16 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices captured $5.50 to $1,826.70 U.S. an ounce.