Equities
Global markets took a pause at the end of the longest U.S government shutdown on record, with markets turning to the resumption of economic data to gauge the interest-rate outlook.
Wall Street futures pointed lower after the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended yesterday’s session above 48,000 for the first time. Dow futures were down 0.2 per cent, S&P futures slid 0.3 per cent and Nasdaq futures were 0.4 per cent lower as of 9 a.m. ET.
TSX futures were in negative territory after Canada’s main stock index closed at a record high yesterday.
In Canada, investors are getting results from Brookfield Corp., Hydro One Ltd., South Bow Corp., AtkinsRéalis Group Inc., Stantec Inc., CES Energy Solutions Corp., Discovery Silver Corp.
On Wall Street, markets are watching earnings from Walt Disney Co., Applied Materials Inc. and Siemens ADR.
Delayed data will likely trickle out next week, economists expect, and the focus is on whether it will back up private surveys that have shown softness in the job market.
“One of the arguments now is with reopening, we should get a lot of data coming through that will give more clarity for [Federal Reserve chairman Jerome] Powell to say: ‘I’m cutting rates because of this,’” said Damian Rooney, director of institutional sales at Perth-based stockbroker Argonaut.
Overseas, the pan-European STOXX 600 was down 0.21 per cent in morning trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 slid 0.74 per cent, Germany’s DAX gave back 0.53 per cent and France’s CAC 40 rose 0.4 per cent.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei closed 0.43 per cent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.56 per cent.
Commodities
Oil prices reversed course higher after yesterday’s losses as investors weighed concerns about global oversupply with looming sanctions against Russia’s Lukoil.
Brent crude futures climbed 0.51 per cent to US$63.03 a barrel after dropping 3.8 per cent in the previous session. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 0.5 per cent to US$58.81 a barrel, extending a 4.2-per-cent decline on Wednesday.
“There should be considerable support to oil prices around $60/bbl, especially given there could be short-term disruption to Russian export flows once stricter sanctions kick in,” said Suvro Sarkar, DBS Bank’s energy sector team lead.
In other commodities, spot gold gained 0.7 per cent at US$4,229.19 an ounce, its highest since Oct. 21. U.S. gold futures for December delivery rose 0.5 per cent to US$4,234.10 an ounce.
Currencies and bonds
The Canadian dollar was little changed against its U.S. counterpart.
The day range on the loonie was 71.33 US cents to 71.51 US cents in early trading. The Canadian dollar was up about 0.35 per cent against the greenback over the past month.
The U.S. dollar index, which weighs the greenback against a group of currencies, declined 0.17 per cent to 99.32.
The euro gained 0.22 per cent to US$1.1620. The British pound advanced 0.24 per cent to US$1.3165.
In bonds, the yield on the U.S. 10-year note was last up at 4.111 per cent.
Economic news
*Note: Scheduled U.S. data reports may not be released as the government was set to reopen, but some federal services may be slow to return.
Euro zone industrial production.
U.K. GDP, services index, industrial and manufacturing production
8:30 a.m. ET: U.S. initial jobless claims for week of Nov. 8.
8:30 a.m. ET: U.S. CPI for October. The Street expects a rise of 0.2 per cent from September and up 3.1 per cent year-over-year.
2 p.m. ET: U.S. budget balance for October.
With Reuters and The Canadian Press