Equities
Global stocks traded lower as lacklustre earnings from tech giants Tesla and Alphabet subdued risk appetite.
The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index opened 0.25 per cent lower at 22,756.17, tracking losses on Wall Street. Investors are looking at the latest policy decision by the Bank of Canada, which has cut its benchmark interest rate as expected by 25 basis points to 4.5 per cent.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq took the biggest hit in a weak open for Wall Street, after disappointing quarterly results from Tesla and Alphabet raised questions about the dominance of Big Tech and the AI boom.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.37 per cent to 40,210.63, the S&P 500 was down 0.90 per cent at 5,505.84, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.46 per cent to 17,733.91 at the bell.
In Canada, investors are getting results from Rogers Communications, Teck Resources and Athabasca Oil.
On Wall Street, markets are watching earnings from IBM, AT&T, Visa, Boston Scientific, Waste Management, Ford, General Dynamics, Chipotle Mexican Grill, CME Group, Newmont and Thermo Fisher.
“The bar was set so high for Alphabet that a modest earnings beat couldn’t push the stock higher. So, the market has no news to buy into,” said Kyle Rodda, senior financial market analyst at Capital.com.
“It also speaks to concerns that tech stocks are too richly valued here. We will have to see how the other tech giants report and how the markets react.”
Overseas, the pan-European STOXX 600 was down 0.38 per cent in morning trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.06 per cent, Germany’s DAX declined 0.74 per cent and France’s CAC 40 gave back 1 per cent.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei closed 1.11 per cent lower, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 0.88 per cent.
Commodities
Oil prices edged higher but were still close to their lowest level in six weeks with few signs of the fuel consumption surge usually seen at this stage of the northern hemisphere summer.
Brent crude futures for September rose 0.8 per cent to US$81.67 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for September increased 1 per cent to US$77.74 a barrel.
“Market is nearing oversold territory and we still believe that the fundamentals support prices moving higher from current levels over the remainder of the third quarter on the back of a deficit environment,” ING analysts said in a note.
In other commodities, gold prices drifted higher, with investors awaiting U.S. economic data that could influence the Federal Reserve’s rate-cut timeline.
Spot gold was up 0.4 per cent at US$2,417.63 an ounce and U.S. gold futures gained 0.5 per cent to US$2,418.20.
Currencies and bonds
The Canadian dollar weakened against its U.S. dollar counterpart.
The day range on the loonie was 72.45 US cents to 72.58 US cents in early trading. The Canadian dollar was up/down about 0.67 per cent against the greenback over the past month.
The U.S. dollar index, which weighs the greenback against a group of currencies, fell 0.25 per cent to 104.19.
The euro slid 0.12 per cent to US$1.0842. The British pound rose 0.02 per cent to US$1.2909.
Japan’s yen surged to a seven-week high ahead of a central bank meeting next week.
In bonds, the yield on the U.S. 10-year note was last down at 4.226 per cent.
Other corporate news
Rogers Communications has recorded a rise in second-quarter profit to $394-million from $109-million a year ago, partly due to lower restructuring and acquisition costs related to its purchase of Shaw Communications last year.
Teck Resources has reported its second-quarter profit fell compared with a year ago, in part because of its reduced ownership in steelmaking coal business Elk Valley Resources, along with lower steelmaking coal prices.
Visa’s third-quarter revenue growth fell short of Wall Street targets in a rare miss for the world’s largest payments processor as steep borrowing costs limited consumer spending.
AT&T has exceeded market expectations for wireless subscriber additions in the second quarter, as the telecom operator’s higher-tier unlimited plans attracted customers.
Economic news
Japan manufacturing PMI
Euro area manufacturing PMI. Germany consumer confidence
8:30 a.m. ET: U.S. goods trade deficit.
8:30 a.m. ET: U.S. wholesale and retail inventories for June.
9:45 a.m. ET: Bank of Canada policy announcement and monetary policy report. Press conference at 10:30 a.m.
9:45 a.m. ET: S&P Global PMIs
10 a.m. ET: U.S. new home sales for June.
With Reuters and The Canadian Press