Equities
Global markets were muted to end a turbulent week dominated by revelations of extramarital affairs involving Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang that led to his resignation, in a blow to the global AI boom he helped advance.
Wall Street futures were mixed with the Nasdaq pointing lower after major North American markets closed down yesterday.
TSX futures were in negative territory.
In Canada, investors are getting results from Onex Corp. and Chemtrade Logistics Income Fund.
“Jensen has obviously been a singular force in many ways so the impact will likely be felt far and wide,” said UBS analyst Timothy Arcuri.
“The company has become a key source of funds for a host of AI industry participants including neo-clouds, LLM developers, ecosystem partners, and suppliers, and we have always seen Jensen as a key driving force for this effort. Even if a new leader ultimately maintains a similar approach, there is likely to be some ‘pause’ in the company’s willingness and ability to continue pursuing these deals in the near term.”
Overseas, the pan-European STOXX 600 was up 0.07 per cent in morning trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.23 per cent, Germany’s DAX gained 0.12 per cent and France’s CAC 40 climbed 0.11 per cent.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei closed 0.53 per cent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.55 per cent.
Commodities
Oil prices steadied but were headed for a second weekly decline as the continued U.S. focus on its blockade and economic pressure on Iran eased fears of renewed fighting in the Middle East, though shipping attacks remained a supply risk.
Brent futures were little changed at $95.80 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures slipped 0.35 per cent to $88.43 a barrel. Both benchmarks were on track for a 2-per-cent drop this week, after plunging double digits last week.
“The market is range bound post midterms. The ability for more hostilities [in Iran] is restricted but a deal is equally elusive,” said Jeff Currie, founder of Real Macro and former global head of commodities research at Goldman Sachs.
“That means the market is roughly balanced, with the ability to trade up limited and the ability to trade down limited,” he said.
In other commodities, spot gold rose 0.7 per cent to US$3,903.19 an ounce. U.S. gold futures for December delivery gained 0.6 per cent to US$3,907.50.
Currencies and bonds
The Canadian dollar weakened against its U.S. counterpart.
The day range on the loonie was 70.07 US cents to 70.18 US cents in early trading. The Canadian dollar was down about 0.85 per cent against the greenback over the past month. It traded at $1.4263 per US$1.
The U.S. dollar index, which weighs the greenback against a group of currencies, was little changed at 103.17.
The euro edged up 0.02 per cent to US$1.1057. The British pound declined 0.04 per cent to US$1.3231.
In bonds, the yield on the U.S. 10-year note was last down at 5.124 per cent.
Economic news
Euro zone GDP and trade deficit
8:30 a.m. ET: Canadian manufacturing sales and new orders for September.
8:30 a.m. ET: Canadian wholesale trade for September.
8:30 am. ET: U.S. PPI for October. The Street is estimating a rise of 0.4 per cent from September and up 6.5 per cent year-over-year
With Reuters and The Canadian Press