Futures on the Rise in Toronto

Futures for Canada's main stock index rose on Wednesday tracking upbeat commodity prices, while investors digested a drop in fourth-quarter profit of top Canadian lenders National Bank and RBC.

The TSX Composite recorded healthy gains of 56.92 points to finish Tuesday at 20,277.41.

December futures on the S&P/TSX index surged 0.4%.

The Canadian dollar vaulted 0.4 cents to 74 cents U.S.

Both National and RBC reported a drop in profit from the previous year, as the lenders set aside higher provisions for bad debts in the face of the most anticipated recession.

Brookfield Asset Management said it will buy a 49% stake in the education portfolio of Sweden's SBB for $870.42 million.

Canadian Natural Resources forecast higher production for 2023.

Enbridge Inc expects higher core earnings next year as the firms seek to capitalize on higher oil and gas prices. The pipeline operator also said that Greg Ebel would succeed retiring President and CEO Al Monaco.

ON BAYSTREET

The TSX Venture Exchange hiked 4.41 points Tuesday to 578.92.

ON WALLSTREET

S&P 500 futures rose Wednesday after a labour report signaled the job market could be cooling, raising hopes the Federal Reserve would slow its aggressive rate-hiking campaign.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrials accumulated 49 points, or 0.1%, to 33,906.

Futures for the S&P 500 gained 14 points, or 0.4%, to 3,976.

Read:

• Latest Set of FDA Fast Track Designations Causing Optimism in Biotech Sector

• Biotech Sector to Unveil New Data and Developments at 2022 SABCS in San Antonio

• Biotech Sector Witnessing Growing Revenue Potential in Ongoing Battle Against Pancreatic Cancer

• New Biotech Sector Drug Combinations Target a Drop in Pancreatic Cancer Mortality Rates

• Highly Sought After Natural Ingredients Appearing in More Plant-Based Products Across North America

Futures for the NASDAQ Composite surged 66.75 points, or 0.6%, to 11,591.50.

Gains were muted as Wall Street awaits an afternoon speech from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

Stocks making headway in the pre-market include Hormel, after reporting a mixed quarter. Earnings beat estimates, but sales came up short of Wall Street forecasts. The company also issued a weaker-than-expected outlook and said it expected a continued volatile and high cost environment.

Petco rallied 8% after its report of adjusted quarterly earnings of 16 cents per share matched Street forecasts and revenue was slightly above estimates. A comparable store sales rise of 4.1% beat the FactSet consensus estimate.

Payroll processing firm ADP said Wednesday that private companies added just 127,000 positions for the month, well below the 190,000 consensus estimate from economists polled by Dow Jones. Treasury yields extended their decline and stock futures gained after the report.

The official jobs report from the government is due Friday.

Powell will give a speech at the Brookings Institution this afternoon that may give further insight into the central bank’s thinking on future interest rate increases. The Fed is slated to meet later this month and is largely expected to deliver a smaller 0.5 percentage point rate hike after four consecutive 0.75 percentage point increases to tame high inflation. Any signal of a pivot on future rate hikes would likely send markets higher.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 backed off 0.2% Wednesday, while in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index rocketed 2.2%.

Oil prices leaped $2.77 to $80.57 U.S. a barrel.

Gold prices added $12.40 to $1,776.10 U.S. an ounce.