Equities<\/p>\n
Global markets were mixed as investors braced for a week packed with central bank meetings and corporate earnings, and also weighed a diplomatic impasse in U.S.-Iran negotiations.<\/p>\n
Wall Street futures diverged after the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq notched their latest in a series of record closing highs yesterday.<\/p>\n
TSX futures were little changed after Canada\u2019s main stock index closed lower yesterday, pressured in part by gold prices. <\/p>\n
In Canada, investors are getting results from Aecon Group Inc. and Toromont Industries Ltd.<\/p>\n
On Wall Street, markets are watching earnings from Coca-Cola Co., Novartis AG, Visa Inc., T-Mobile US Inc., Corning Inc., Starbucks Corp., Spotify Technology Inc., United Parcel Service Inc. and BP PLC.<\/p>\n
\u201cInflation expectations have risen uncomfortably over the past two months, driven by a notable jump in energy prices,\u201d Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote, wrote in a note. \u201cAt this stage, no one \u2014 including central bankers \u2014 can predict what comes next if Middle East tensions continue to disrupt energy flows.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we do know is that the longer the Strait of Hormuz remains under strain, the stronger the impact on markets will be.\u201d <\/p>\n
Overseas, the pan-European STOXX 600 edged up 0.06 per cent in morning trading. Britain\u2019s FTSE 100 gained 0.22 per cent, Germany\u2019s DAX climbed 0.13 per cent and France\u2019s CAC 40 advanced 0.08 per cent.<\/p>\n
In Asia, Japan\u2019s Nikkei closed 1.02 per cent lower, while Hong Kong\u2019s Hang Seng fell 0.95 per cent. <\/p>\n
Commodities<\/p>\n
Oil prices extended gains as efforts to end the U.S.-Iran war appear stalled, with the crucial Strait of Hormuz still mainly shut, keeping energy supplies from the key Middle East producing region out of the reach of global buyers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brent crude futures for June climbed 2.37 per cent to US$110.80 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for June delivery rose 2. per cent to US$99.03 a barrel.<\/p>\n
\u201cTalks around \u2018peace\u2019 still look largely superficial and lack concrete evidence of de-escalation. Despite the rhetoric, vessel movement through the Strait of Hormuz remains curtailed, and that prolonged disruption is what\u2019s keeping oil risk premiums elevated,\u201d said Phillip Nova\u2019s senior market analyst Priyanka Sachdeva.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In other commodities, spot gold was down 1.1 per cent to US$4,628.63 an ounce. U.S. gold futures for June delivery fell 1.1 per cent to US$4,642.90.<\/p>\n
Currencies and bonds<\/p>\n
The Canadian dollar weakened against its U.S. counterpart.<\/p>\n
The day range on the loonie was 73.26 US cents to 73.47 US cents in early trading. The Canadian dollar was up about 1.97 per cent against the greenback over the past month. <\/p>\n
The U.S. dollar index, which weighs the greenback against a group of currencies, rose 0.12 per cent to 98.62. The U.S. dollar traded at $1.3647. <\/p>\n
The euro slid 0.16 per cent to US$1.1703. The British pound dropped 0.2 per cent to US$1.3507. <\/p>\n
In bonds, the yield on the U.S. 10-year note was last up at 4.361 per cent.<\/p>\n
Economic news<\/p>\n
The Bank of Japan, in an expected move, left short-term rates unchanged at 0.75 per cent but three of the nine-member board proposed hiking, in the first of several central bank meetings this week.<\/p>\n
ECB\u2019s three-year CPI expectations<\/p>\n
9 a.m. ET: U.S. S&P Cotality Case-Schiller Home Price Index (20 city) for February.<\/p>\n
9 a.m. ET: U.S. FHFA House Price Index for February. The Street is projecting a rise of 0.1 per cent from January and up 1.6 per cent year-over-year.<\/p>\n
10 a.m. ET: U.S. Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index for April.<\/p>\n
Also: Ottawa\u2019s spring update and U.S. Fed meeting begins.<\/p>\n
With Reuters and The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Equities Global markets were mixed as investors braced for a week packed with central bank meetings and corporate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22768,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1634,17,1635,1627,1629,1630,1632,1636,1448,1637,1631,1628,1633,818],"class_list":{"0":"post-22767","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-bonds","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-canadian-dollar","11":"tag-dow-jones","12":"tag-equities","13":"tag-futures","14":"tag-gold","15":"tag-loonie","16":"tag-nasdaq","17":"tag-newnewsletter","18":"tag-oil","19":"tag-sd","20":"tag-silver","21":"tag-tsx"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}