Luke KawaThe Globe and Mail
The Before the Bell report is updated throughout the premarket to reflect the latest news developments and market moves. Check back later for updates.
Equities around the world are mostly higher this morning, with U.S. futures pointing to an open above Friday's close.
S&P/TSX futures are modestly higher, even after April West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures broke below $44 on Sunday evening, extending the previous week of declines. This morning, the April futures contract is trading just modestly above Sunday's six-year low of $43.57.
The impetus for the renewed buoyancy in equity markets were comments from Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, who signalled that a slowdown in the economy would prompt the government to open the spending taps. The Shanghai Composite hit a six-and-a-half year high following this news.
"Premier Li suggested the country has plenty of capacity to deploy targeted stimulus measures if growth slows towards the bottom of the targeted range," writes IG market strategist Stan Shamu. A Chinese spending spree would provide a short-term boost for its economy, as well as those of many emerging markets, Canada, and Australia. However, Chinese stimulus would also reflect more underlying economic weakness in the domestic economy than previously thought, and serve as a reminder that a transition to consumer-led growth won't be an easy task.
European equities are also flying high, with Germany's DAX cracking 12,000 for the first time ever amid the European Central Bank's sovereign quantitative easing program.
Here's a look at the latest market numbers and other highlights ahead of the trading day.
Futures:
S&P 500 +0.38 per cent; Dow +0.35 per cent; Nasdaq +0.34 per cent
Equities:
Hong Kong's Hang Seng +0.51 per cent
Shanghai composite index +2.26 per cent
Japan's Nikkei -0.04 per cent
London's FTSE 100 +0.47 per cent
Germany's DAX +1.21 per cent
France's CAC 40 +0.86 per cent
Stoxx 600 +0.67 per cent
Commodities:
WTI crude oil (Nymex Apr) -1.07 per cent at $44.36 (U.S.) a barrel
Natural gas (Nymex Apr) -0.95 per cent at $2.701
Gold (Comex Apr) +0.36 per cent at $1,156.50 (U.S.) an ounce
Copper (Comex May) -0.11 per cent at $2.6605 (U.S.) a pound
Currencies:
Canadian dollar at 78.31 (U.S.), up 0.0005
U.S. dollar index down 0.436 at 99.894
Bonds:
U.S. 10-year Treasury yield 2.2147 per cent, down 0.00267
ECONOMIC INDICATORS:
U.S. Empire State Manufacturing Survey for March came in at 6.9, below February's reading of 7.8 and the consensus estimate for 8.0.
(9:15 a.m. ET) U.S. industrial production rose 0.1 per cent in February, a tick below what economists had anticipated.
(10 a.m. ET) U.S. housing market index for March.
STOCKS TO WATCH:
Valeant has raised its offer to buy Salix Pharmaceuticals to $173 (U.S.) a share. It's intended to fend off a rival cash-and-stock bid last week by Endo International. Valeant shares are up 1 per cent in the U.S. premarket.
Algonquin Power & Utilities revealed details today of why it postponed its financial results earlier this month. It said the company became aware "of certain anonymous, unproven allegations regarding certain personnel." The company assessed that the allegations did not impact the financial results.
BlackBerry Ltd. launched a tablet geared towards government and corporate customers, two of the last bastions for its devices The SecuTABLET is based on a design from Camsung Electronics Co. and uses software from International Business Machines Corp.
Barrick Gold Corp. may be considering a sale of its Zaldivar copper mine in Chile to raise cash to pay off debt, the Financial Times is reporting.
Shares of Walt Disney Co. were moving higher in the premarket trade after sales of "Cinderella" during the opening weekend cracked the $70-million (U.S.) mark, according to Rentrak Corp, which was above what had been forecast.
Earnings include: Crocodile Gold, Dorel, GuestLogix, Response Biomedical, Black Diamond Inc., Century Casinos Inc., Dynamic Materials Corp., ExOne Co., FX Energy Inc., Inovio Pharmaceutical Inc., Magicjack Vocaltec Ltd., New Source Energy Partners, Nuverra Environmental Solutions, Quiksilver Inc., StemCells Inc., Townsquare Media Inc., Turtle Beach Corp.
ANALYST ACTIONS:
B2Gold Corp. was upgraded to "buy" from "market perform" at Cormark Securities.
Netflix Inc. was lowered to "sell" from "hold" at Evercore ISI.
Goldcorp Inc. was upgraded to "overweight" from "neutral" at Raymond James.