Equities
Global markets were lower as investors paused to consider the latest corporate earnings and reassess their appetite for risk.
Wall Street futures were little changed, pointing to a more stable open after yesterday’s declines in the major indexes.
TSX futures edged higher, driven by gains in metal prices.
On Wall Street, markets are watching earnings from Abbott Laboratories, CSX Corp., Morgan Stanley, Kinder Morgan Inc., Prologis Inc. and U.S. Bancorp.
With stocks within a whisker of record highs and valuations looking pricey, analysts said there was plenty of scope for volatility, not least because of the political backdrop.
Matt Simpson, senior market analyst at City Index, said investors are likely questioning how exposed to risk they really want to be, given there are risk events and a U.S. election looming.
“I expect investors to become increasingly twitchy as we head towards Nov. 5, and keen (to) book profits at frothy levels.”
Overseas, the pan-European STOXX 600 was down 0.33 per cent in morning trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 advanced 0.68 per cent, Germany’s DAX slid 0.31 per cent and France’s CAC 40 retreated 0.59 per cent..
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei closed 1.83 per cent lower, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gave back 0.16 per cent.
Commodities
Oil prices steadied, supported by OPEC+ cuts and uncertainty over what may happen next in the Middle East conflict, after demand concerns knocked the market to its lowest since early October in the previous session.
Brent crude oil futures eased 0.6 per cent to US$73.78 a barrel, and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures declined 0.7 per cent to US$70.12.
“The end of the current year could actually turn out to be tightish due to healthy consumption readings and OPEC+ constraints,” said Tamas Varga at oil broker PVM.
“2025, however, will be much better supplied than 2024 putting absolute and relative downward pressure on oil prices.”
In other commodities, spot gold rose 0.7 per cent to US$2,678.70 an ounce, trading about US$7 shy of the all-time high level hit last month. U.S. gold futures gained 0.6 per cent to US$2,695.30.
Currencies and bonds
The Canadian dollar weakened against its U.S. counterpart.
The day range on the loonie was 72.49 US cents to 72.62 US cents in the early premarket period. The Canadian dollar was down about 1.3 per cent against the greenback over the past month.
The U.S. dollar index, which weighs the greenback against a group of currencies, edged up 0.01 per cent to 103.27.
The euro climbed 0.05 per cent to US$1.0897. The British pound dropped 0.37 per cent to US$1.3026.
In bonds, the yield on the U.S. 10-year note was last down at 4.012 per cent ahead of the North American opening bell.
Other corporate news
Morgan Stanley has reported higher profit in the third quarter, fueled by a rebound in deal-making that also helped its rivals.
U.S. Bancorp beat estimates for third-quarter profit, helped by higher-than-expected interest income, sending the bank’s shares up 2.3 per cent in premarket trading.
Abbott Laboratories has slightly lifted its annual profit forecast, after beating Wall Street estimates for quarterly earnings on strong demand for its glucose-monitoring products and other medical devices.
Economic news
Japan core machine orders
U.K. CPI, which indicated inflation slowed sharply last month to the lowest level in more than three years, bolstering bets on a Bank of England interest rate cut in November.
(8:15 a.m. ET) Canadian housing starts for September, which rose a lower-than-expected 5 per cent.
(8:30 a.m. ET) Canadian manufacturing sales and new orders for August. Factory sales fell by 1.3 per cent from July on lower sales of primary metals, as well as petroleum and coal products.
(8:30 a.m. ET) U.S. import prices for September. Consensus is a decline of 0.3 per cent from August but flat year-over-year.
With Reuters and The Canadian Press