Equities
Global markets were lower with investors hitting the pause button as U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s next cabinet comes into focus and ahead of economic data that could affect interest-rate policies.
Wall Street futures edged into negative territory after markets closed yesterday at fresh record highs.
TSX futures followed sentiment lower.
In Canada, investors are getting results from Shopify Inc., Suncor Energy Inc., Power Corp. of Canada, CAE Inc., Finning International Inc., SmartCentres REIT and H&R REIT.
On Wall Street, markets are watching earnings from Home Depot Inc., Occidental Petroleum Corp. and Spotify Technology SA.
Analysts also pointed to reports of Trump tapping U.S. Senator Marco Rubio to be his secretary of state, arguably the most hawkish option.
“The market is now worrying that there will be more rapid negative China policy emerging from the Trump administration with his new cabinet picks,” said Steven Leung, executive director of institutional sales at UOB Kay Hian in Hong Kong. “Their hawkishness could be more than expected.”
Overseas, the pan-European STOXX 600 was down 0.85 per cent in morning trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.95 per cent, Germany’s DAX gave back 0.59 per cent and France’s CAC 40 retreated 0.98 per cent.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei closed down 0.4 per cent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng tumbled 2.84 per cent.
Commodities
Oil prices were little changed, awaiting further price direction from OPEC’s monthly report, while investor disappointment over China’s latest stimulus plan and oversupply concerns limited gains.
Brent crude futures rose 0.7 per cent to US$72.32 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up 0.7 per cent to US$68.52 a barrel.
“In a flat price environment that is stalled, supply and demand become even more magnified and at present it would appear that oil market participants do not like what they see,” said John Evans, analyst with oil broker PVM.
In other commodities, spot gold fell 1 per cent to US$2,595.49 an ounce, while U.S. gold futures slid 0.7 per cent to US$2,598.90.
Currencies and bonds
The Canadian dollar weakened against its U.S. counterpart.
The day range on the loonie was 71.62 US cents to 71.85 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, advanced 0.3 per cent to 105.86.
The euro dropped 0.25 per cent to US$1.0629. The British pound fell 0.34 per cent to US$1.2823.
In bonds, the yield on the U.S. 10-year note was last up at 4.356 per cent ahead of the North American opening bell.
Economic news
Japan machine tool orders
Germany CPI, which rose to 2.4 per cent in October, confirming preliminary data.
(6 a.m. ET) U.S. NFIB Small Business Economic Trends Survey for October.
(8:30 a.m. ET) Canadian building permits for September. Estimate is a decline of 1.0 per cent from August.
(11 a.m. ET) U.S. New York Fed Survey of Consumer Expectations for October.
(2 p.m. ET) U.S. Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey for October.
With Reuters and The Canadian Press