Futures Muted on Trade, Corporate News

Futures for Canada's benchmark index were subdued on Thursday with investors looking for trade updates and assessing corporate news.

The TSX Composite Index hiked 98.83 points to close Wednesday at 27,152.97

September futures were unchanged Thursday.

The Canadian dollar handed back 0.41 cents to 72.62 cents U.S.

Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Wednesday that steel tariff quotas will be introduced for countries with which Canada has free trade agreements, excluding the U.S., in a bid to protect the domestic steel industry.

The move follows U.S. President Donald Trump increasing import duties on steel and aluminum to 50% from 25% earlier this month. But existing arrangements with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement will be upheld.

Investors are monitoring tariff updates with the August 1 deadline quickly approaching. Japan held talks with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Thursday and Europe Union's trade chief headed to Washington on Wednesday.

Circle K-operator Alimentation Couche-Tard pulled its $46-billion bid to buy 7-Eleven's parent company Seven & i Holdings, saying the Japanese retailer did not engage constructively on the deal that would have created a global convenience store giant.

On the economic front, Statistics Canada reported Canadian investors acquired $13.4 billion of foreign securities in May, led by purchases of U.S. shares.

Meanwhile, foreign investors reduced their exposure to Canadian securities by $2.8 billion, marking a fourth consecutive monthly divestment.

ON BAYSTREET

The TSX Venture Exchange moved higher 4.04 points Wednesday to 786.81.

ON WALLSTREET

U.S. stock futures were little changed on Thursday as traders pored through the latest earnings and weighed the latest in President Donald Trump’s feud with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrials settled 73 points, or 0.2%, to 44,386.

Futures for the S&P 500 index lost five points, or 0.1%, to 6,298.25.

Futures for the NASDAQ poked ahead 0.75 points to 23,077.25.

PepsiCo and GE Aerospace traded higher in the premarket after both companies posted better-than-expected earnings. United Airlines also posted an earnings beat, but shares were down 1%.

The earnings season is off to a strong start. More than 45 S&P 500 components have reported thus far, with 87% of those exceeding analyst expectations, FactSet data shows.

Wall Street is coming off a winning session after Trump denied that he was planning to fire Powell from his position as Fed chief.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index recovered 0.6% Thursday, while in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng cooled 0.1%

Oil prices picked up 37 cents to $66.75 U.S. a barrel.

Gold prices lost $29.10 to $3,330.0 U.S. an ounce.