Futures for Canadian stocks were tepid on Friday, tracking weakness in copper prices, while investors were cautious ahead of domestic retail sales data to assess how the economy fared in November.
The TSX lost 34.79 points to end Thursday at 20,341.44.
March futures on the S&P/TSX index slid 0.1% Friday morning.
The Canadian dollar surrendered 0.03 cents to 74.23 cents U.S.
Sun Life Financial struck a 15-year banc assurance partnership in Hong Kong with Dah Sing Bank which is likely to boost the Canadian insurer’s presence in the special administrative region of Hong Kong.
Hudbay said protesters in Peru entered the Canada-based miner’s copper unit in the southern region of Cusco and damaged and burned key machinery and vehicles.
On the economic calendar, Statistics Canada says retail trade for November decreased 0.1% to $61.8 billion in November. Sales decreased in six of 11 subsectors and were led by lower sales at food and beverage stores (-1.6%) and building material and garden equipment and supplies dealers (-3.8%).
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange dipped 1.94 points Thursday to 615.91.
ON WALLSTREET
Stock futures were little changed Friday as investors tried to hang onto the January rally amid worries about monetary policy and slowing earnings.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrials picked up nine points early Friday to 33,148.
Futures for the S&P 500 added 12.25 points, or 0.3%, to 3,927.75.
Futures for the NASDAQ Composite hiked 84.75 points, or 0.8%, to 11,441.25.
For the week, all three indexes are on track to close lower. The Dow is down 3.7%, on track for its worst week since September. The S&P 500 is down more than 2.5% and could notch its worst weekly performance since December. The NASDAQ is down more than 2% and on pace to break a two-week win streak.
Nordstrom slipped more than 4% after reporting weak holiday sales and cutting its year-end forecast. Netflix jumped 5% after posting more subscribers than expected even though its quarterly earnings missed analysts’ estimates.
Google will lay off about 12,000 employees, CEO Sundar Pichai said in a memo to employees Friday.
Shares of its parent company Alphabet rose 3.6% in early morning trading.
Going forward, investors will continue to watch corporate earnings with oilfield services name SLB and Ally Financial set to report Friday.
They will also listen closely to speeches from Fed officials ahead of the central bank’s February meeting, seeking clues on the size of the rate hike that’s likely forthcoming.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 advanced 0.6% Friday, while in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index barreled ahead 1.8%.
Oil prices tacked on 40 cents to $80.73 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices surged $5.30 to $1,929.70 U.S. an ounce.