Equities
Wall Street futures dipped as economic worries continue to weigh on sentiment. Major European markets were mostly lower. TSX futures were down slightly.
In the early premarket period, Dow, S&P and Nasdaq futures were all in the red. On Tuesday, all three saw losses, with the Dow and S&P ending four-day winning streaks. Canada’s S&P/TSX Composite Index closed essentially flat. The index is up more than 3 per cent over the past five days.
“After a bullish start to the month, some steam has come out of the rates-down, dollar-down, stocks-up theme, as concerns about the U.S. jobs market negatively interacted with still ongoing jitters on banking corners, particularly around regulation amid the omnipresent worries about commercial real estate loans sitting like a dead weight on bank balance sheets,” Stephen Innes, managing partner with SPI Asset Management, said.
On Tuesday, fresh data showed U.S. job openings fell in February to the lowest level in almost two years.
In this country, Canadian investors will get international trade figures for February before the start of trading.
“RBC Economics expects the Canadian international trade surplus to edge slightly higher in February ($2.4-billion, prior $1.9-billion),” Elsa Lignos, global head of FX strategy at RBC, said in an early note.
“Oil prices were lower but we expect a slightly larger retracement in imports than exports after large gains in both in January.”
On the corporate side, retailer Roots Inc. reports its latest quarter results this morning.
As well, Royal Bank of Canada is the latest of the country’s big banks to hold its annual meeting.
CIBC and Scotiabank held their annual shareholder meetings on Tuesday. The Globe’s Stefanie Marotta reports the heads of both those banks kicked off this year’s round of shareholder meetings by emphasizing their sound financial footing in the wake of several high-profile bank failures while also acknowledging they have more work to do.
“Our bank is a resilient institution,” said CIBC chief executive Victor Dodig. “We have strong capital levels and liquidity. We’re highly diversified across sectors and geography. And we have a long history of managing our business well through the full economic cycle.”
In the U.S., markets will get a reading on the health of the U.S. services sector in March. Economists are expecting to see a slight pullback in growth.
Overseas, the pan-European STOXX 600 was down 0.24 per cent in morning trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 edged up 0.27 per cent. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 lost 0.37 per cent and 0.27 per cent, respectively.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei closed down 1.68 per cent. Markets in Hong Kong were closed for a public holiday. New Zealand’s central bank surprised markets by raising interest rates by a bigger-than-expected half percentage point, citing the continued need to fight inflation.
Commodities
Crude prices gave back some recent gains as economic concerns tempered new figures showing a decline in weekly U.S. inventories.
The day range on Brent was US$84.71 to US$85.54 in the early premarket period. The range on West Texas Intermediate was US$80.42 to US$81.24.
“Oil prices are consolidating after the early week surge in the aftermath of the OPEC+ announcement,” OANDA senior analyst Craig Erlam said.
“The decision to cut output has proven to be very controversial, much like the two million barrel reduction in October, but just like that, there’s no guarantee it will lead to dramatically higher prices.”
At this point, Mr. Erlam said, crude is trading around the highs of the last four months and has tested those levels on a number of occasions.
“A break above here could be a bullish signal but at this point, we are still seeing plenty of resistance,” he said.
“Recent stress in the banking system has led to weaker economic expectations and lower interest rate forecasts and the cut could simply be a response to that.
Meanwhile, prices drew some support from figures from the American Petroleum Institute showing weekly U.S. crude inventories fell by 4.3 million barrels last week. More official numbers are due later this morning from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
In other commodities, spot gold was up 0.3 per cent at US$2,025.49 per ounce early Tuesday morning, in thin trade as China and Hong Kong markets were closed for a holiday. U.S. gold futures firmed 0.2 per cent to $2,042.10.
“Gold smashed through US$2,000 on Tuesday as the latest [U.S. job openings] data showed openings declining and significantly so, in one of the first signs of the labour market cooling,” Mr. Erlam said. “It’s still very early days but the data will be a little encouraging for the Fed, especially if paired with a softer jobs report on Friday.”
Currencies
The Canadian dollar was down while its U.S. counterpart traded near two-month lows as weaker U.S. economic data raised questions about the Federal Reserve’s need for future rate hikes.
The day range on the loonie is 74.17 US cents to 74.48 US cents in the predawn period. The Canadian dollar is up about 0.6 per cent against the greenback over the past five days.
On world markets, the U.S. dollar index, which measures the performance of the U.S. currency against six others, hit a two-month low of 101.43. It was last up 0.1 per cent at 101.59, having fallen 0.5 per cent the previous day, according to figures from Reuters.
Markets are pricing in about a 59-per-cent chance that the Fed will hold rates steady at its next meeting in May in the wake of the latest reading on job openings in the U.S. economy.
The euro was flat at US$1.0948, below Tuesday’s two-month high, while Britain’s pound eased 0.2 per cent to US$1.2479, after hitting a 10-month high the day before.
The New Zealand dollar rallied more than 1 per cent to a two-month high of US$0.6383 after that country’s central bank raised interest rates by 50 basis points, before retreating. It was last up 0.1 per cent at US$0.6316, Reuters reported.
In bonds, the yield on the U.S. 10-year note was higher at 3.368 per cent in the early premarket period.
More company news
UBS executives told shareholders on Wednesday that its unexpected takeover of Swiss rival Credit Suisse in the biggest bank rescue since the global financial crisis was a milestone for the industry and a major challenge for the bank. Describing the transaction as “the first merger of two globally systematically important banks,” Chairman Colm Kelleher sought to assure investors saying it also meant “a new beginning and huge opportunities ahead for the combined bank and for the Swiss financial center as a whole.” -Reuters
Johnson & Johnson is earmarking nearly US$9-billion to cover allegations that its baby power containing talc caused cancer, more than quadrupling the amount that the company had previously set aside to pay for its potential liability. Under a proposal announced Tuesday, a J&J subsidiary will re-file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and seek court approval for a plan that would result in one of the largest product-liability settlements in U.S. history. -The Associated Press
Economic news
(8:30 a.m. ET) Canadian merchandise trade balance for February.
(8:30 a.m. ET) U.S. ADP National Employment Report for March.
(8:30 a.m. ET) U.S. goods and services trade deficit for February.
(10 a.m. ET) U.S. ISM Services PMI for March.
With Reuters and The Canadian Press

This data comes from MediaIntel.Asia's Media Intelligence and Media Monitoring Platform.