Equities
Global markets were mixed as investors rotated out of some high-flying tech names while TSMC’s blowout quarterly results fuelled a rally in semiconductor shares.
Wall Street futures were also mixed as markets assessed earnings from financial heavyweights.
TSX futures pointed lower after Canada’s main stock market hit a fresh record high yesterday.
In Canada, investors are getting results from Richelieu Hardware Ltd.
On Wall Street, markets are watching earnings from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd., Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and BlackRock Inc.
TSMC, the world’s main producer of advanced AI chips, posted a forecast-smashing 35-per-cent jump in fourth-quarter profit to a record high, predicted robust annual growth and flagged more U.S. manufacturing capacity was in the works.
“There’s a rotation playing out on Wall Street that’s ultimately weighing on [indexes] but indicates that the internals of the market are holding up reasonably well,” said Kyle Rodda, an analyst at Capital.com.
Overseas, the pan-European STOXX 600 was up 0.49 per cent in morning trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.43 per cent, Germany’s DAX edged up 0.08 per cent and France’s CAC 40 fell 0.15 per cent.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei closed 0.42 per cent lower, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 0.28 per cent.
Commodities
Oil prices fell after U.S. President Donald Trump said killings of demonstrators in nationwide protests in Iran were stopping, tempering concerns over military action against Iran and supply disruptions.
Brent futures were down 3.3 per cent to US$64.33 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude had slid 3.3 per cent to US$59.96 a barrel.
The comments reduced the risk premium that had built up in recent days, analysts said.
“While the situation remains fragile, the immediate risk premium has softened but is unlikely to go away given the continued risk of a disruption,” Saxo Bank analyst Ole Hansen said.
In other commodities, spot gold was steady at US$4,619.54 yesterday. U.S. gold futures for February delivery fell 0.3 per cent to US$4,623.80.
Currencies and bonds
The Canadian dollar weakened against its U.S. counterpart.
The day range on the loonie was 71.85 US cents to 72.06 US cents in early trading. The Canadian dollar was down about 0.92 per cent against the greenback over the past month.
The U.S. dollar index, which weighs the greenback against a group of currencies, gained 0.25 per cent to 99.38.
The euro declined 0.31 per cent to US$1.1609. The British pound dropped 0.48 per cent to US$1.3379.
In bonds, the yield on the U.S. 10-year note was last up at 4.149 per cent.
Economic news
Euro zone trade surplus and industrial production
Germany GDP, which showed the troubled economy returned to modest growth last year after two years of falling output with a 0.2 per cent rise.
5 a.m. ET: Canadian existing home sales and average prices for December. National home sales for the month dropped by 2.7 per cent on a seasonally adjusted basis from November, and by 4.5 per cent in real numbers compared with December, 2024.
5 a.m. ET: Canada’s MLS Home Price Index for December. Estimate is a year-over-year drop of 4.0 per cent.
8:30 a.m. ET: Canadian manufacturing sales for November, which fell 1.2 per cent to $70.8-billion, weighed down by a decline in the auto sector. Estimates were for a 1.1 per cent decline.
8:30 a.m. ET: Canada’s wholesale trade for November. Excluding petroleum, petroleum products, and other hydrocarbons and excluding oilseed and grain, they dropped 1.8 per cent to $84.4-billion.
8:30 a.m. ET: U.S. initial jobless claims for week of Jan. 10, which showed an unexpected fall, but that likely does not signal a material shift in the labor market, which remains in a holding pattern. New claims declined to an adjusted 198,000 compared with an estimated 212,000.
8:30 a.m. ET: U.S. import prices for October and November.
8:30 a.m. ET: U.S. Empire State Manufacturing Survey for January.
8:30 a.m. ET: U.S. Philadelphia Fed Index for January.
With Reuters and The Canadian Press