Futures Fall Short of Breakeven
Futures tied to Canada's main stock index were subdued on Thursday, while TD Bank and CIBC became the latest domestic lenders to report a rise in third-quarter profit.
The TSX Composite Index gained 93.12 points to close Wednesday at 28,433.
Futures fell 0.1% Thursday
The Canadian dollar nicked up 0.12 cents to 72.70 cents U.S.
TD Bank's bottom line was helped by lower cash reserves for bad loans, while CIBC benefited from robust performance in its capital markets division.
On the economic front, Statistics Canada reported the number of employees receiving pay and benefits from their employer—measured as "payroll employment" in the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours—decreased by 32,900 (-0.2%) in June, following an increase of 18,500 (+0.1%) in May. On a year-over-year basis, payroll employment was up 41,000 (+0.2%) in June.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange inched higher 0.79 points Wednesday to 813.23.
ON WALLSTREET
Stock futures were relatively unchanged on Thursday but up from their worst levels of the session as traders pored over Nvidia’s earnings results and forecast. Investors largely looked at the numbers as affirming the AI boom despite the stock itself trading a bit lower in the premarket.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrials were better by 59 points, or 0.1%, to 45,702.
Futures for the S&P 500 forged ahead 1.5 points to 6,497.50
Futures for the NASDAQ slipped 7.75 points to 23,621.
Nvidia – which makes up about 8% of the S&P 500, per FactSet – reported second-quarter results that beat Wall Street’s estimates with booming revenue growth of 56%. There were a couple initial concerns, however: first, revenue for its data center business was a hair under estimates. Second, the company guided overall revenue for this quarter of $54 billion, only slightly above expectations of $53.1 billion of analysts polled by LSEG.
The stock initially pulled back but was on the comeback trail as the opening bell approached. It was last down about 1%. Many traders and analysts noted that the revenue guide does not assume any H20 chip sales to China. If a deal can be worked out involving China and the Trump administration on those sales, then revenue this quarter could be much better than forecast.
Meanwhile, shares of AI play Snowflake jumped 14% in premarket trading after its second-quarter results surpassed expectations.
The market is coming off a winning session Wednesday with the S&P 500 notching a record in anticipation of strong Nvidia results. The S&P 500 and the NASDAQ are each up more than 2% for August, while the 30-stock Dow is up more than 3% in the period.
Investors have been shrugging off threats to the Federal Reserve’s independence from the Trump administration after President Donald Trump told Fed Board Governor Lisa Cook that she’s fired earlier this week, a move that Cook plans to legally challenge.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 progressed 0.7% Thursday, while in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng dropped 0.8%.
Oil prices docked 10 cents to $64.05 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices added $16.50 at $3,465.10 U.S. per ounce.
