Equities
Global markets advanced as U.S. President Donald Trump’s postponement of his threatened 50-per-cent duties on European Union shipments reinforced the unpredictability of his trade policies.
Wall Street futures were up sharply following the U.S. holiday Monday to start the trading week.
TSX futures followed sentiment higher after Canada’s main stock market closed at a record high yesterday on broad-based gains.
In Canada, bank earnings season continues as investors are getting results from the Bank of Nova Scotia, which reported a drop in second-quarter profit and an increase in its quarterly dividend by 4 cents to $1.10.
“Markets are getting more accustomed to Trump’s threats and now partly assume the full threat won’t immediately materialize,” Deutsche Bank analysts wrote. “There is certainly fear fatigue.”
Overseas, the pan-European STOXX 600 was up 0.37 per cent in morning trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.64 per cent, Germany’s DAX gained 0.68 per cent and France’s CAC 40 edged up 0.08 per cent.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei closed up 0.51 per cent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.43 per cent.
Commodities
Oil prices were little changed as easing trade war concerns offset expectations OPEC+ will decide to increase their output at a meeting later this week.
Brent crude futures were down 0.4 per cent at US$64.46 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell 0.5 per cent to US$61.20 a barrel.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said yesterday that OPEC+ had yet to discuss hiking output. The group is likely to finalize output quotas in an online ministerial meeting tomorrow.
In other commodities, spot gold was down 1.6 per cent at US$3,289.93 an ounce following holidays in the U.S and Britain yesterday. U.S. gold futures fell 2.3 per cent to US$3,287.80.
Currencies and bonds
The Canadian dollar weakened against its U.S. counterpart.
The day range on the loonie was 72.59 US cents to 72.88 US cents in early trading. The Canadian dollar was up about 0.48 per cent against the greenback over the past month.
The U.S. dollar index, which weighs the greenback against a group of currencies, rose 0.17 per cent to 99.28.
The euro declined 0.23 per cent to US$1.1362. The British pound gave back 0.03 per cent to US$1.3557.
In bonds, the yield on the U.S. 10-year note was last down at 4.472 per cent.
Meanwhile, the yield on 30-year U.S. Treasuries fell as much as eight basis points to 4.9572 per cent, their lowest in a week
The 30-year yields - at the epicentre of the market sell-off in April following Trump’s initial raft of tariffs - are still just below 5 per cent, near their highest since October 2023.
The move mirrored a near-20 basis point fall in yields for Japanese 30-year debt that came on the heels of a report today that Tokyo will consider trimming issuance of the super-long bonds, after recent sharp rises in yields.
Economic news
China industrial profits
Euro zone economic and consumer confidence
(8:30 a.m. ET) Canadian wholesale trade for April
(8:30 a.m. ET) U.S. durable goods orders for April. The Street is projecting a drop of 8.2 per cent from March.
(9 a.m. ET) U.S. S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Index for March.
(9 a.m. ET) U.S. FHFA House Price Index for March.
(10 a.m. ET) U.S. Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index for May.
With Reuters and The Canadian Press