Equities
Global markets were mixed with sentiment turning lower as investors assessed trade winds after U.S. President Donald Trump exempted some automakers from tariffs for a month. They also eyed the European Central Bank’s policy decision to cut interest rates by a quarter percentage point.
Wall Street’s main indexes opened lower on trade uncertainty, while chip stocks slid after Marvell’s forecast fanned worries of slowing demand for AI infrastructure.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.37 per cent to 42,848.49, the S&P 500 dropped 0.97 per cent to 5,785.87, and the Nasdaq Composite slid 1.88 per cent to 18,204.528.
The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index opened down 0.8 per cent at 24,662.09.
In Canada, investors are getting results from Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.
On Wall Street, markets are watching earnings from Costco Wholesale Corp., Broadcom Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co.
“Obtaining any kind of reliable signal from the headlines is almost impossible,” said Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone.
“One must truly feel for those businesses that need to plan ahead - with tariff policy changing almost daily, the ability to have any sort of confidence to make strategic decisions is currently almost impossible – this will have implications.”
Overseas, the pan-European STOXX 600 was down 0.77 in morning trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 slid 0.85 per cent, Germany’s DAX gained 0.07 per cent and France’s CAC 40 gave back 0.72 per cent.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei closed 0.77 per cent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 3.29 per cent on hints from Beijing of new policy support.
Commodities
Oil prices inched higher, recovering slightly from a multiyear low, though Brent was still below US$70 under pressure from trade tariffs between the United States, Canada, Mexico and China and OPEC+ plans to raise output.
Brent crude futures were trading up 0.4 per cent at US$69.58 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures climbed 0.5 per cent to US$66.67 a barrel.
U.S. President Donald “Trump’s trade measures are threatening to reduce global energy demand and disrupt trade flows in the global oil market,” ANZ commodity strategist Daniel Hynes said in a note.
In other commodities, spot gold was down 0.9 per cent to US$2,893.63 an ounce, while U.S. gold futures lost 0.9 per cent to trade at US$2,900.07.
Currencies and bonds
The Canadian dollar weakened against its U.S. counterpart.
The day range on the loonie was 69.55 US cents to 69.88 US cents in early trading. The Canadian dollar was down about 0.39 per cent against the greenback over the past month.
The U.S. dollar index, which weighs the greenback against a group of currencies, dropped 1.64 per cent to 104.
The euro climbed 0.28 per cent to US$1.0820. The British pound slipped 0.09 per cent to US$1.2884.
In bonds, the yield on the U.S. 10-year note was last up at 4.295 per cent.
Corporate news
Seven & i Holdings, the Japanese operator of the 7-Eleven convenience store chain, appointed its first foreign CEO and handed him the task of overhauling its business to fend off Alimentation Couche-Tard’s US$47-billion overseas takeover bid and engineer a recovery.
Canadian Natural Resources has posted a fall in fourth-quarter profit as weaker commodity prices overshadowed a rise in production.
Economic news
China foreign reserves and trade surplus
Euro zone retail sales
ECB monetary policy meeting
(8:30 a.m. ET) Canada’s merchandise trade balance for January. The trade surplus exceeded expectations by a wide margin to post a 32-month record as fears of tariff from the U.S. pushed exports of cars and energy products, especially south of its border, data showed.
(8:30 a.m. ET) U.S. initial jobless claims for week of March 1. Claims dropped 21,000 to a seasonally adjusted 221,000, compared with forecasts of 235,000.
(8:30 a.m. ET) U.S. productivity and unit labour costs for Q4. The Street is projecting annualized rate increases of 1.2 per cent and 3.0 per cent, respectively.
(8:30 a.m. ET) U.S. goods and services trade deficit for January.
(10 a.m. ET) U.S. wholesale inventories for January.
With Reuters and The Canadian Press