Equity futures for Canada's largest market were lower on Wednesday as oil prices fell after producers delayed a decision on output, although losses were capped by hopes of a quick economic recovery after Britain approved a COVID-19 vaccine.
The TSX advanced 106.68 points to conclude Tuesday at 17,296.63.
The Canadian dollar shied 0.12 cents Wednesday at 77.20 cents U.S.
December futures slipped 0.1% Wednesday.
Royal Bank of Canada and National Bank of Canada beat analysts' expectations for fourth-quarter profit on lower loan provisions.
Canaccord Genuity raises target price on Bank of Montreal to $103.50 from $94.50
RBC raises target price on Dollarama to $64.00 from $60.00
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange gained 6.69 points to close Tuesday at 757.11.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stock futures edged lower early Wednesday, despite recent strength that has brought the major averages to record highs.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrials Index gave back 133 points, or 0.5%, to 29,671.
Futures for the S&P 500 lost 11.25 points, or 0.3%, at 3,649.25.
Futures for the NASDAQ Composite sank 39 points, or 0.3%, to 12,413.25.
Dow component Salesforce announced it is acquiring messaging platform Slack for $27.7 billion after the bell on Tuesday. The Slack deal marks the cloud software vendor’s largest deal ever. Shares of Salesforce were off 5% in the premarket.
Investors digested more positive Covid-19 vaccine news. The U.K. on Wednesday authorized the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for emergency use, marking another step in the global battle against the pandemic.
Despite the positive vaccine data, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell called the economic outlook "extraordinarily uncertain" on Tuesday when he and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin spoke before Congress this week as part of mandated updates on CARES Act funding. Mnuchin did call on Congress for $300 billion in aid for restaurants heading into the winter months.
Private payrolls data from ADP will be released Wednesday morning. Economists polled by Dow Jones are expecting 475,000 private jobs were added in November, compared to the 365,000 added in October.
Overseas, in Japan, the Nikkei 225 gained 0.1% Wednesday, while in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index dropped 0.1%
Oil prices sank 15 cents to $44.40 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices jumped $5.60 to $1,824.50 U.S.
