Equities
Global stocks were muted, while sinking crude prices heralded inflation relief and pushed bond yields lower ahead of Kevin Warsh’s debut meeting as chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve.
Wall Street futures mostly pointed higher, with S&P 500 futures up 0.11 per cent, Nasdaq futures up 0.56 per cent and Dow futures flat, as of 7:04 am ET. TSX futures were down 0.7 per cent. In the previous session, the Nasdaq and S&P 500 finished lower, while the Dow and TSX marked their second straight record closes.
In Canada, investors are getting results from Andrew Peller Ltd., which on Monday agreed to be bought by Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd.
Overseas, the pan-European STOXX 600 was up 0.30 per cent in morning trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 declined 0.11 per cent, Germany’s DAX fell 0.12 per cent and France’s CAC 40 rose 0.06 per cent.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei closed 0.72-per-cent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng finished 0.74-per-cent lower.
Commodities
Oil prices held steady near a three-month low as investors weighed the impact of a U.S.-Iran peace deal and the International Energy Agency’s warning that supply could significantly overtake demand next year.
Brent crude futures were up 0.4 per cent to US$79.26 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate gained 0.3 per cent to US$76.29.
“Markets are broadly stripping out the embedded geopolitical risk premium in oil prices,” said Priyanka Sachdeva, senior market analyst at Phillip Nova. “That said, the path toward normalization remains far from straightforward. While political agreements may be progressing, physical tanker traffic through the Strait has yet to fully recover.”
In other commodities, spot gold was flat at US$4,323.50 per ounce. U.S. gold futures for August delivery were down 0.3 per cent at US$4,342.40.
Currencies and bonds
The Canadian dollar weakened against its U.S. counterpart.
The day range on the loonie was 71.38 US cents to 71.55 US cents in early trading. The Canadian dollar was down about 1.83 per cent against the greenback over the past month.
The U.S. dollar index, which weighs the greenback against a group of currencies, gained 0.05 per cent to 99.330. The dollar was pegged at $1.4005.
The euro lost 0.04 per cent to US$1.1605. The British pound shed 0.09 per cent to US$1.3415.
In bonds, the yield on the U.S. 10-year note was last down at 4.438 per cent.
Economic news
8:30 a.m. ET: Canadian new housing price index for May
8:30 a.m. ET: U.S. retail sales for May. Consensus is for a rise of 0.5 per cent, holding steady from April.
2:00 p.m. ET: FOMC announcement and summary of economic projections. Fed chair Warsh holds first press briefing at 2:30 p.m. ET.
With Reuters and The Canadian Press