Equities

A late-week rally in global shares left them on track for weekly gains after earnings from some U.S. tech giants eased concerns about AI returns.

Wall Street futures pointed up after major U.S. indexes ended sharply higher on Thursday, with Microsoft logging its biggest daily percentage gain in 18 years.

TSX futures were in positive territory a day after the index registered a modest gain.

In Canada, investors are getting results from Arc Resources Ltd., Brookfield Renewable Partners LP, Cameco Corp., Enbridge Inc., Energy Fuels Inc., Fortis Inc., George Weston Ltd., Imperial Oil Ltd., Magna International Inc., Premium Brands Holdings Corp., Telus Corp., TransAlta Corp.

On Wall Street, markets are watching earnings from AbbVie Inc., Chevron Corp., Lumine Group Inc.

Investors concerned that the AI rally may soon run out of steam were reassured by Microsoft’s earnings on Wednesday. Amazon followed on Thursday with its strongest cloud growth in more than four years.

“Investors are increasingly focused on capital efficiency, financing and the long-term economics of hyperscalers’ AI spending rather than on near-term demand,” said Saverio Papagno, portfolio manager of North Square Growth Opportunities ETF.

Overseas, the pan-European STOXX 600 was up 0.83 per cent in morning trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.67 per cent, Germany’s DAX gained 0.99 per cent and France’s CAC 40 advanced 0.99 per cent.

In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei closed 4.03 per cent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng edged up 0.10 per cent.

Commodities

Oil prices fell as more supplies flowed through crucial maritime chokepoints, despite a lack of major breakthroughs in talks between the United States and Iran. Oil prices, however, remained on track for a monthly rise.

Brent crude futures were down 1.44 per cent at US$87.75 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude slipped 1.77 per cent to US$82.11 a barrel.

“The market has stopped trading the war and started trading the shipping data,” said Ole Hvalbye, market analyst at SEB Research. “Every escalation since February has been followed by flows partially recovering within days, so headlines get faded and transit counts get traded more in detail I believe.”

In other commodities, spot gold fell 0.7 per cent to US$4,075.35 per ounce. U.S. gold futures for August delivery lost 0.6 per cent to US$4,074.

Currencies and bonds

The Canadian dollar weakened against its U.S. counterpart.

The day range on the loonie was 71.29 US cents to 71.29 US cents in early trading. The Canadian dollar was up about 1.33 per cent against the greenback over the past month.

The U.S. dollar index, which weighs the greenback against a group of currencies, rose 0.28 per cent to 100.005. The dollar was pegged at $1.4013.

The euro slipped 0.04 per cent to US$1.1525. The British pound lost 0.04 per cent to US$1.3462.

In bonds, the yield on the U.S. 10-year note was last down at 4.651 per cent.

Economic news

China purchasing managers indexes

Japan inflation, employment, retail sales and industrial production data

Euro area inflation data

8:30 a.m. ET: Canada monthly real GDP for May. Consensus is for a 0.1 per cent monthly increase, slowing from April’s 0.5 per cent. An advance estimate will also be released for June

8:30 a.m. ET: U.S. employment cost index

10 a.m. ET: U.S. University of Michigan consumer sentiment final reading for July

Ottawa’s latest budget balance

With Reuters and The Canadian Press