Equities
Global markets rose ahead of key U.S. inflation data that could affect whether the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates next week.
Wall Street futures were mixed after the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq indexes notched record high closes yesterday.
TSX futures were in positive territory after Canada’s main stock market hit another record high in the wake of the Teck-Anglo American deal.
In Canada, investors are getting results from Group Dynamite Inc.
On Wall Street, markets are watching earnings from Chewy Inc. and Evertz Technologies Inc.
The final hurdles to in the Fed policy decision will come today and tomorrow, in the form of producer and consumer inflation readings, respectively.
“An upside inflation surprise could rock the boat slightly and lead to an unwinding of rate cut probabilities, not so much for September, but for subsequent months,” said Kyle Rodda, senior financial markets analyst at Capital.com.
Overseas, the pan-European STOXX 600 was up 0.24 per cent in morning trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.08 per cent, Germany’s DAX gained 0.13 per cent and France’s CAC 40 climbed 0.16 per cent.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei closed 0.87 per cent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 1.01 per cent.
Commodities
Oil prices rose after Israel attacked Hamas leadership in Qatar, Poland shot down drones and the U.S. made a push for new sanctions on buyers of Russian oil, but concerns over crude oversupply capped further gains.
Brent crude futures were up 0.8 per cent at US$66.95 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures gained 0.9 per cent to US$63.13 a barrel.
“The current uptick in oil prices has been primarily attributed to an increase in geopolitical risk premiums after Israel’s unprecedented strike in Doha,” said Kelvin Wong, senior market analyst at OANDA.
“This increases the fears of a short-term supply crunch if OPEC+ members’ oil production facilities are hit by Israel.”
In other commodities, spot gold was up 0.5 per cent to US$3,643.784 an ounce. U.S. gold futures for December delivery were steady at US$3,682.30.
Currencies and bonds
The Canadian dollar weakened against its U.S. counterpart.
The day range on the loonie was 72.12 US cents to 72.27 US cents in early trading. The Canadian dollar was 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, edged up 0.03 per cent to 97.82.
The euro slid 0.06 per cent to US$1.1704. The British pound advanced 0.02 per cent to US$1.3530.
In bonds, the yield on the U.S. 10-year note was little changed at 4.088 per cent.
Economic news
China CPI and PPI
(8:30 a.m. ET) U.S. PPI for August. The Street expects a month-over-month gain of 0.3 per cent and a rise of 3.4 per cent year-over-year.
(8:30 a.m. ET) U.S. wholesale inventories for July.
With Reuters and The Canadian Press