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The Before the Bell report is constantly updated to reflect the latest news developments and market moves in the premarket. Check back later for updates.

North American stock futures are losing ground this morning as traders fret whether the S&P 500's rally Wednesday - its biggest this year - has made U.S. stocks all the more vulnerable to another steep selloff. Futures for the major U.S. and Canadian indexes are down close to 0.3 per cent.

In what has become a rare occurrence this year, gold is a star performer this morning, rising by about 2 per cent, regaining a little bit of its lustre with the help of a weakening U.S. dollar.

The weaker greenback, and Wednesday's nearly 1.8 per cent jump in the S&P 500, has largely been pegged to Wednesday's release of the minutes from the Federal Reserve's last policy meeting. Central bank officials left the impression they weren't in a rush to lift interest rates, as some expressed concern over the impact of the stronger dollar and slower growth among some of the U.S. 's major trading partners.

There could be a little more insight arriving today on the Fed's latest inclinations, as six officials from the central bank will be speaking, including Fed Vice Chair Stanley Fischer - a voting member on the rate-setting committee.

The market today is also finding some encouragement from Alcoa's third-quarter results released after the bell Wednesday, which beat expectations on both the top and bottom lines, and the aluminum producer's outlook was encouraging thanks to strong demand from the auto and aerospace sectors.

Now, investors will be watching to see if other earnings reports are just as rosy as they flood out over the next few weeks. Analysts are expecting profit at companies in the S&P 500 to rise 4.9 per cent in the third quarter, according to a Bloomberg survey, and investors are keen to see whether unusually high margins will stay intact.

Now, here's a closer look at what's happening this morning and what's to come.

MARKETS:

Equities:

Futures: S&P 500 -0.34 per cent; Dow -0.40 per cent; Nasdaq -0.30 per cent; S&P/TSX -0.33 per cent

Hong Kong's Hang Seng +1.17 per cent

Shanghai composite index +0.26 per cent

Japan's Nikkei -0.75 per cent

London's FTSE 100 -0.54 per cent

Germany's DAX +0.04 per cent

France's CAC 40 -0.60 per cent

Stoxx 600 -0.30 per cent

Commodities:

WTI crude oil (Nymex Nov) -0.55 per cent at $86.83 (U.S.) a barrel

Natural gas (Nymex Nov) -0.16 per cent at $3.85 (U.S.)

Gold (Comex Dec) +2.02 per cent at $1,230.40 (U.S.) an ounce

Copper (Comex Dec) +1.20 per cent at $3.04 (U.S.) a pound

Currencies:

Canadian dollar at 90.14 (U.S.), up 0.0011

U.S. dollar index down 0.18 at 85.11

US dollar vs euro 0.7832, down 0.0023

Bonds:

U.S. 10-year Treasury yield 2.30 per cent, down 0.02

ECONOMIC INDICATORS:

Canada's new housing price index for August was up 0.3 per cent from July, stronger than the 0.1 per cent gain economists had expected.

U.S. initial jobless claims last week stayed steady at 287,000, which was a little below the Street forecast of 295,000.

(10 a.m. ET) U.S. wholesale inventories for August. They are expected to rise 0.3 per cent.

STOCKS TO WATCH:

QLT says it will receive a US$28.4-million termination fee as a result of a decision by Auxilium Pharmaceuticals to cancel their friendly merger deal in favour of a superior offer worth about US$2.6 billion from an Irish company.

Canadian Tire boosted its share buyback program by $400-million (Canadian).

Lake Shore Gold Corp.'s cash costs over the first nine months of 2014 are 13 per cent below its guidance for the full year, according to preliminary estimates released Thursday by the mid-tier Canadian gold company.

Alcoa is up 3 per cent in the premarket after late Wednesday reporting adjusted profit of 31 cents per share in the third quarter, beating the Street consensus of 22 cents. Sales also beat forecasts and Alcoa also forecast record shipments to auto and aerospace customers in the current quarter.

Allergan is up 2 per cent in the premarket after the botox maker raised its forecast for third-quarter and full-year 2014 earnings.

Pepsico reported adjusted earnings of $1.36 per share, which was 7 cents better than Wall Street had expected. Revenue of $17.22-billion was also better than the $17.08-billion that analysts had projected. It also raised its full-year profit guidance.

Other earnings today include: Sandvine, Velan.

ANALYST ACTIONS:

Canaccord Genuity upgraded Bank of Montreal to "buy" from "hold" and hiked its price target to $89 (Canadian) from $85.

Canaccord Genuity downgraded Royal Bank to "hold" from "buy" and maintained an $85 (Canadian) price target.

BMO Nesbitt Burns upgrades Riocan REIT to "outperform" citing the stock's recent slide. It maintained a $30 (Canadian) target price.

Oppenheimer upgraded Apple to "outperform" from "perform" with a price target of $115 (U.S.).

BMO Nesbitt Burns downgraded Colgate Palmolive to "market perform" from "outperform" and cut its price target to $70 (U.S.) from $75.

BMO Nesbitt Burns initiated coverage on Microsoft with a "market perform" rating and $48 (U.S.) price target.

THIS MORNING'S TOP READS ON THE WEB:

How taxes can affect ETF performance.

GoPro: The quintessential pain trade.

The gain sector is rebounding.

Can Silicon Valley reinvent banking?

The new bond king is…an index fund.

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Have feedback on our daily Before the Bell report and suggestions on how to make it more useful in your investing day? Please contact Inside the Market Editor Darcy Keith at dakeith@globeandmail.com.

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