Equities
Global markets edged higher as investors assessed weak U.S. economic data and corporate warnings about the hit from tariffs amid growing Federal Reserve rate cut expectations.
Wall Street futures pointed higher after main U.S. indexes closed lower yesterday following Monday’s rally.
TSX futures followed sentiment higher after Canada’s main stock index closed at a fresh record high yesterday.
In Canada, investors are getting results from Shopify Inc., Brookfield Asset Management Ltd., Manulife Financial Corp., Nutrien Ltd., IGM Financial Inc. and Kinaxis Inc.
Shopify has reported double-digit revenue growth and profit for the second quarter and projected continued growth in the coming months, topping analyst expectations despite concerns about the impacts of rising consumer costs, new fees and global trade frictions.
Brookfield has recorded profit of US$620-million in the second quarter that ended June 30, compared with US$495-million a year earlier. Profit of 38 US cents per share was just shy of the 39 cents analysts expected.
On Wall Street, markets are watching earnings from McDonald’s Corp., Walt Disney Co., Airbnb Inc., Dayforce Inc., Uber Technologies Inc. and WSP Global Inc.
“We see risk assets in a tug-of-war between solid U.S. corporate earnings, powered by the artificial intelligence (AI) theme, and tariffs hurting growth while lifting inflation,” said analysts at BlackRock Investment Institute.
Overseas, the pan-European STOXX 600 eased 0.08 per cent. Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.29 per cent, Germany’s DAX inched up 0.07 per cent and France’s CAC 40 advanced 0.3 per cent.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei closed 0.6 per cent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng inched up 0.03 per cent.
Commodities
Oil prices were on the rise, rebounding from a five-week low yesterday, in response to concerns over potential supply disruptions after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened India with higher tariffs over its Russian crude purchases.
Brent crude futures gained 1.6 per cent to US$68.75 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was up 1.7 per cent to US$66.28 a barrel.
“There’s still plenty of uncertainty over the U.S. imposing secondary tariffs on buyers of Russian oil ... market chatter is growing that China’s purchases of Russian oil may come into focus next,” ING commodity strategists said on Wednesday.
“If India were to stop buying Russian oil amid tariff threats, we believe the market would be able to cope with the loss of this supply,” they said, adding that the bigger risk was if other buyers also started to shun Russian oil.
In other commodities, spot gold fell 0.5 per cent to US$3,362.54 an ounce, after hitting a near two-week high yesterday. U.S. gold futures gave back 0.5 per cent to US$3,417.30.
Currencies and bonds
The Canadian dollar strengthened against its U.S. counterpart.
The day range on the loonie was 72.56 US cents to 72.75 US cents in early trading. The Canadian dollar was down about 0.6 per cent against the greenback over the past month.
The U.S. dollar index, which weighs the greenback against a group of currencies, slid 0.19 per cent to 98.60.
The euro rose 0.24 per cent to US$1.1606. The British pound gained 0.11 per cent to US$1.3313.
In bonds, the yield on the U.S. 10-year note was last up at 4.230 per cent.
Economic news
China trade surplus
Japan real cash earnings
Euro zone retail sales
Germany factory orders
(9:30 a.m. ET) Canada’s S&P Global Services PMI for July.
(10 a.m. ET) U.S. Global Supply Chain Index for July.
With Reuters and The Canadian Press