Equities
Global markets mostly pointed higher as traders awaited a flurry of tech earnings and central bank decisions.
Wall Street’s main indexes opened higher with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.2 per cent at 40,622.13 and the S&P 500 up 0.28 per cent to 5,478.73. The Nasdaq Composite was 0.31 per cent higher at 17,424.1 at the opening bell.
Canada’s main stock index also rose, led by gains in health care shares. The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index was up 0.14 per cent at 22,812.12 at the open.
In Canada, investors will get results from railway company Canadian Pacific Kansas City and energy name Precision Drilling.
On Wall Street, markets are watching earnings from tech giant Microsoft, coffee chain Starbucks and airline JetBlue, among others. Other tech behemoths are set to report this week and traders will be scrutinizing their earnings for signs that they have the potential to induce further AI-led equity rallies.
“What we’re looking for is how some of these (companies) are going to continue spending money on AI adoption and building AI universes for themselves and if investors will continue to give them enough rope in order to do that,” said Scott Ladner, chief investment officer at Horizon Investments.
Interest rates were also top of mind, with traders preparing for Wednesday’s U.S. Federal Reserve meeting. The central bank isn’t expected to cut rates, but markets are expecting signals of a September rate cut.
Overseas, the pan-European STOXX 600 was up 0.62 per cent. Britain’s FTSE 100 was down a slight 0.062 per cent, Germany’s DAX gained 0.65 per cent and France’s CAC 40 increased 0.48 per cent.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei closed 0.15 per cent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 1.37 per cent.
Commodities
Oil traded at its lowest levels since early June on Tuesday as worries about demand in China offset the prospect of lower U.S. crude and product inventories.
Brent crude fell by 0.97 per cent to US$79.01 a barrel while WTI crude was down 0.87 per cent at US$75.15. At their intra-day lows, both contracts were down by more than US$1. The front-month Brent contract traded at a low of US$78.67 and WTI at US$74.75, the weakest for both benchmarks since June 6.
A string of disappointing economic news from China, the world’s largest crude importer, has been weighing on commodity prices.
“Weakening global demand growth, an unresolved economic outlook in China and still-elevated global oil inventories are continuing to weigh on prices” said Claudio Galimberti of constulancy Rystad Energy.
In other commodities, spot gold was up 0.3 per cent at US$2,391.14 per ounce.
Currencies and bonds
The Canadian dollar was flat against its U.S. dollar counterpart.
The day range on the loonie was 72.11 US cents to 72.27 US cents. The Canadian dollar was down about 1.27 per cent against the greenback over the past month.
The U.S. dollar index, which weighs the greenback against a group of currencies, was gained 0.18 per cent to 104.75.
The euro lost 0.13 to US$1.0807. The British pound declined 0.29 per cent to US$1.2824.
In bonds, the yield on the U.S. 10-year note held at 4.18 per cent.
Economic news
Bank of Japan policy announcement and outlook report (through Wednesday)
Euro area GDP July economic confidence. Germany also releases CPI and France consumer spending
9 a.m. ET: U.S. S&P Corelogic Case-Shiller home price index for May. Consensus is for a rise of 0.3 per cent from April. Also, FHFA house price index
10 a.m. ET: U.S. Conference Board consumer confidence index
10 a.m. ET: U.S. June job openings and labour turnover survey
With Reuters and The Canadian Press