Equities
Global markets found steady footing, with stocks rising in Asia and Europe, as investors sought to recoup from the global selloff and tech pullback earlier this week.
Wall Street’s main indexes opened higher as technology stocks gained after Japan’s top policymaker calmed investor worries over interest rates after a surprise hike last week partly set off heavy volatility in global markets.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.6 per cent to 39,230.09, gained 1.01 per cent to 5,293.13, and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.56 per cent to 16,622.31.
The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index was up 1.29 per cent at 22,262.03 with technology shares leading gains after Shopify beat quarterly revenue estimates, while the index looked towards a broader recovery.
In Canada, investors are getting results from Air Canada, Manulife Financial Corp., Shopify Inc., Nutrien Ltd., Stella-Jones Inc., Stelco Holdings Inc., Stantec Inc. Canadian Apartment Properties REIT and Granite REIT.
They are also eyeing deliberations from the Bank of Canada’s July 24 meeting, set for release this afternoon.
On Wall Street, markets are watching earnings from Walt Disney Co.
“I think you need to look at what didn’t happen on Monday to get a sense of where this fits relative to other big periods of volatility ... in other crises you’d see the market for interbank funding get a lot tighter, and that didn’t happen, gold didn’t perform, and commodities didn’t collapse,” said Tim Graf, head of macro strategy for Europe at State Street Global Markets.
Overseas, the pan-European STOXX 600 was up 1.44 per cent in morning trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 advanced 1.39 per cent, Germany’s DAX gained 1.03 per cent and France’s CAC 40 rose 1.43 per cent.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei closed 1.19 per cent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.38 per cent.
Commodities
Oil prices rebounded from multi-month lows on concerns that an escalating conflict in the Middle East could hurt oil production, even as worries about weak crude demand persisted..
Brent crude futures were up 1.4 per cent to US$77.58 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude advanced 1.4 per cent to US$74.27.
In other commodities, gold prices prices inched up, driven by safe-haven demand and rising bets that the U.S. Federal Reserve might reduce interest rates as early as September, while a rebound in U.S. dollar and Treasury yields limited gains.
Spot gold rose 0.2 per cent to US$2,393.66 an ounce, while U.S. gold futures gained 0.1 per cent to US$2,434.00.
“It’s a very noisy market at the moment, gold isn’t moving as much on its own fundamentals due to volatility in broader markets, currency markets in particular,” Kyle Rodda, a financial market analyst at Capital.com.
Currencies and bonds
The Canadian dollar strengthened against its U.S. dollar counterpart.
The day range on the loonie was 72.50 US cents to 72.80 US cents in early trading. The Canadian dollar was down about 0.91 per cent against the greenback over the past month.
The U.S. dollar index, which weighs the greenback against a group of currencies, gained 0.18 per cent to 103.16.
The euro declined 0.1 per cent to US$1.0921. The British pound gained 0.2 per cent to US$1.2717.
In bonds, the yield on the U.S. 10-year note was last up at 3.932 per cent.
Other corporate news
Shopify beat analysts’ estimates for quarterly revenue, as its artificial intelligence-powered tools helped pull in more merchants to its e-commerce services. It reported second-quarter revenue of US$2.05-billion, compared with analysts’ average estimate of US$2.01-billion, according to LSEG data.
Air Canada has reported a lower second-quarter profit, as excess capacity in some markets and stiff competition on international routes hurt its pricing power. Profit fell to $410-million or $1.04 a share from $838-million or $2.34 a share a year earlier.
Glencore says it will keep its coal business after securing backing from a majority of its investors who see lucrative earnings from the fossil fuel while releasing its latest earnings. CEO Gary Nagle added the company could acquire more steelmaking coal assets.
Novo Nordisk has trimmed its full-year profit outlook after reporting weaker-than-expected quarterly sales of its popular weight-loss drug Wegovy, stirring worries among investors about stiffening competition from Eli Lilly.
Economic news
Germany industrial production and trade surplus
(1:30 p.m. ET) Bank of Canada’s Summary of Deliberations from July 24 meeting.
(3 p.m. ET) U.S. consumer credit for June.
With Reuters and The Canadian Press