Equities
Global stocks were cautious after a three-day decline, with investor confidence picking up after gold recovered some lost ground and a long-awaited trade deal between the United States and India.
Wall Street futures were mixed with traders eyeing a busy few sessions of earnings.
TSX futures were in positive territory after Canada’s main stock market closed higher yesterday.
In Canada, investors are getting results from Suncor Energy Inc.
On Wall Street, markets are watching earnings from Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Merck & Co. Inc., Pepsico Inc., Amgen Inc., Pfizer Inc., PayPal Holdings Inc. and Chubb Ltd.
“Traditionally, gold acts as protection against market risk. But it is now behaving like a risky asset – worse, at times like a meme stock – and its negative correlation with risk assets has faded," Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote, wrote in a note. “Highly speculative, leveraged positioning is largely responsible for this unusual behaviour.
“The problem is that most diversified portfolios have exposure to gold, meaning this volatility affects all risk profiles.”
Overseas, the pan-European STOXX 600 was down 0.13 per cent. Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.98 per cent, Germany’s DAX was flat and France’s CAC 40 eased 0.32 per cent.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei reached a new record high, closing up 3.92 per cent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng climbed 0.22 per cent.
Commodities
Oil prices steadied as market participants weighed the possibility of a de-escalation in U.S.-Iran tensions, while a firmer U.S. dollar added downward pressure.
Brent crude futures advanced 0.3 per cent to US$66.48 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude traded at US$62.42 a barrel, up 0.4 per cent.
“The volatile price actions of oil seen in the last four weeks have been driven by the geopolitical risk premium factor that is linked to the current U.S. administration’s expansionary foreign policy, especially the ‘on-off’ threats towards Iran,” said OANDA senior market analyst Kelvin Wong.
In other commodities, spot gold climbed 5.3 per cent to US$4,913.59 an ounce. U.S. gold futures for April delivery rose 6.1 per cent to US$4,936.20 an ounce.
Currencies and bonds
The Canadian dollar strengthened against its U.S. counterpart.
The day range on the loonie was 73.06 US cents to 73.28 US cents in early trading. The Canadian dollar was up about 1 per cent against the greenback over the past month.
The U.S. dollar index, which weighs the greenback against a group of currencies, declined 0.03 per cent to 97.60.
The euro slipped 0.07 per cent to US$1.1783. The British pound edged down 0.03 per cent to US$1.3662.
In bonds, the yield on the U.S. 10-year note was last up at 4.299 per cent.
Economic news
10 a.m. ET: U.S. job openings and labour turnover survey
With Reuters and The Canadian Press