Equities
Global markets turned lower while investors awaited interest rate decisions from the U.S. Federal Reserve and Bank of Canada.
Wall Street futures were in negative territory after major North American markets closed up yesterday.
TSX futures were in the red as investors expect the BoC to keep rates steady.
In Canada, investors are getting results from Power Corp. of Canada.
On Wall Street, markets are watching earnings from Micron Technology Inc., General Mills Inc. and Macy’s Inc.
The Fed is widely forecast to keep its policy steady but the debate will very much centre on whether conflict with Iran is likely to disrupt economic growth, threaten more persistent inflation or create a confounding mix of economic slowing and rising prices.
“Consensus still points to the median dot plot showing one 25-basis-point cut for 2026, aligning with current market pricing,” said IG analyst Tony Sycamore.
“That said, there’s a decent chance the dots could shift more hawkish, perhaps even to zero cuts, if the committee views the oil shock as leading to stickier inflation.”
Overseas, the pan-European STOXX 600 was down 0.46 per cent in morning trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 slid 0.6 per cent, Germany’s DAX eased 0.41 per cent and France’s CAC 40 climbed 0.03 per cent.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei closed 2.87 per cent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng advanced 0.61 per cent.
Commodities
Brent crude prices turned positive as supply disruptions — from Gulf producer outages to fresh attacks on regional energy infrastructure — outweighed pressure from Iraq’s resumption of pipeline exports to Turkey’s Ceyhan port.
Brent futures were up 0.6 per cent to US$104.02 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude dropped 1.3 per cent to US$94.93.
“The news provided some relief to the market. Any additional volume finding its way back to the market is valuable under the current situation, so prices moved down to reflect that,” said LSEG senior analyst Anh Pham.
“But we are still in a US$100 per barrel oil environment, and the crisis around the Strait of Hormuz shows no sign of stopping yet.”
In other commodities, spot gold fell 2 per cent to US$4,903.19 an ounce. U.S. gold futures for April delivery dropped 2 per cent to US$4,907.40.
Currencies and bonds
The Canadian dollar weakened against its U.S. counterpart.
The day range on the loonie was 72.91 US cents to 73.07 US cents in early trading. The Canadian dollar was down 0.06 per cent against the greenback over the past month.
The U.S. dollar index, which weighs the greenback against a group of currencies, advanced 0.25 per cent to 99.82.
The euro fell 0.28 per cent to US$1.1510. The British pound dropped 0.28 per cent to US$1.3317.
In bonds, the yield on the U.S. 10-year note was last up at 4.225 per cent.
Economic news
Japan’s trade balance
Bank of Japan monetary policy meeting (through Thursday)
Euro zone CPI
8:30 a.m. ET: Canada’s population estimates for Q4.
8:30 a.m. ET: Canadian international securities transactions for January.
8:30 a.m. ET: U.S. PPI for February, which came in hotter than expected. PPI rose 0.7 per cent from January, and 3.4 per cent from February, 2025. Consensus was for a rise of 0.3 per cent and 2.8 per cent, respectively.
9:45 a.m. ET: Bank of Canada’s policy announcement with Governor Tiff Macklem’s press conference to follow.
10 a.m. ET: U.S. factory orders for January.
2 p.m. ET: U.S. Fed announcement and summary of economic projections with Chair Jerome Powell’s press briefing to following.
Also: Quebec and Saskatchewan’s budgets are released.
With Reuters and The Canadian Press