Before the Bell: What every Canadian investor needs to know today

Equities

Global stocks traded cautiously as investors waited for U.S. business surveys for clues about the economy’s resilience to try to determine when the Federal Reserve might start cutting interest rates this year.

The sentiment weighed on North American markets, with Wall Street and TSX futures all pointing lower.

It’s also triple witching day, when about US$5.5-trillion index futures, options and stock options expire at the same time.

“Given that we are at psychologically crucial, irrationally high, and mathematically overstretched levels, we could see surprise turns and twists in positioning,” Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank, wrote in a note.

It’s all about the data: World market themes for the week ahead

Overseas, the pan-European STOXX 600 was down 0.76 per cent in morning trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 gave back 0.65 per cent, Germany’s DAX slid 0.53 per cent and France’s CAC 40 retreated 0.56 per cent.

In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei closed 0.09 per cent lower at 38,596.47, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 1.67 per cent to 18,028.52.

Commodities

Crude oil futures were little changed but set to rise for a second week on signs of improving demand and falling oil and fuel inventories in the United States.

Brent crude futures inched higher to US$85.75 a barrel after hitting seven-week highs earlier in the week. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up slightly to $81.36 a barrel.

“The seasonal demand increase, as shown by the latest EIA data, renewed confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah, and the hurricane season could sustain price strength into the summer,” Citi analysts said in a note.

In other commodities, spot gold rose 0.3 per cent to US$2,366.83 an ounce, a two-week high. U.S. gold futures rose 0.5 per cent to US$2,380.80.

Currencies and bonds

The Canadian dollar weakened slightly against its U.S. counterpart, which has rallied higher on the week.

The day range on the loonie was 72.97 US cents to 73.13 US cents in the early premarket period. The Canadian dollar was down about 0.15 per cent against the greenback over the past month.

The U.S. dollar index, which weighs the greenback against a group of currencies, spiked overnight, erasing declines for the week, and was last at 105.78, up 0.18 per cent.

The euro fell 0.08 per cent to US$1.0693. The British pound dipped 0.13 per cent to US$1.243.

In bonds, the yield on the U.S. 10-year note was about 0.03 per cent lower at 4.233 per cent ahead of the North American opening bell.

Economic news

Japan CPI and PMI

Euro zone PMI

(8:30 a.m. ET) Canadian retail sales for April. The Street is forecasting a rise of 0.7 per cent from March (or 0.5 per cent excluding automobiles).

(8:30 a.m. ET) Canada’s industrial product and raw materials price indexes for May. Estimates are a month-over-month rise of 0.1 per cent and decline of 1.0 per cent, respectively.

(9:45 a.m. ET) U.S. S&P Global PMIs for June.

(10 a.m. ET) U.S. existing home sales for May. Consensus is an annualized rate drop of 1.9 per cent.

(10 a.m. ET) U.S. leading indicator for May.

With Reuters and The Canadian Press