Equities in Canada were set to open lower on Thursday, a day after recording its worst day in over a week, dragged down by weaker crude prices and investor worries about soaring domestic inflation.
The S&P/TSX plunged 389.63 points, or 1.9%, to close a rough Wednesday at 20,101.38.
June futures skidded 0.9% Thursday.
The Canadian dollar climbed 0.49 cents to 78.10 cents U.S.
Brookfield Asset Management has agreed to buy British home repair services firm HomeServe for 4.08 billion pounds ($5.04 billion U.S.), as it looks to broaden its exposure to U.K. residential infrastructure investments.
Turquoise Hill Resources said on Wednesday Rio Tinto will provide it interim debt funding of up to $400 million while it evaluates the Anglo-Australian miner's $2.7-billion bid for the company.
CIBC cuts target price on Canopy Growth to $6.50 from $9.00
National Bank of Canada cut the target price on Saputo to $31.00 from $33.00
On the economic calendar, Statistics Canada reports its industrial product price index rose 0.8% month over month in April and was up 16.4% year over year.
Its raw materials price index decreased 2.0% on a monthly basis in April and rose 38.4% year over year.
Elsewhere, the agency reported new home prices in April rose 0.3% compared with March.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange plunged 21.32 points Wednesday, or 3%, to 691.17.
ON WALLSTREET
Stock futures were under pressure again on Thursday with the S&P 500 on the brink of a bear market.
Investors continued to dump equities on fears Federal Reserve rate hikes to fight rapid inflation would tip the economy into a recession.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrials let go of 256 points, or 0.8%, to 32,184, a day after the index experienced the biggest one-day drop since 2020.
Futures for the S&P 500 slouched 31.75 points, or 0.8%, to 3,891. It also sits around 18% below its record closing level. A close of 20% or more below its all-time high would mark a bear market, its first since the March 2020 pandemic selloff.
Futures for the NASDAQ Composite Index flopped 99.25 points, or 0.8%, to 11,836.25.
The Dow has declined for seven straight weeks and is down 13% this year. The S&P 500 is off 17.7% in 2022, and the NASDAQ is down 27%.
Cisco was the latest major company to plunge on results with the tech bellwether down 11% in premarket trading Thursday. Cisco said after the bell Wednesday that quarterly revenue fell short of analysts’ expectations and it warned revenue would disappoint in the current quarter.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 tumbled 1.9% Thursday. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng fell 2.5%.
Oil prices ditched $1.75 to $107.84 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices surged $13.40 to $1,829.40 U.S. an ounce.
