Canadian stocks are poised for a weak open Wednesday amid falling commodities and a mixed batch of macroeconomic data out of the euro zone. While Asian stocks settled broadly higher overnight on optimism over growth in the U.S. economy, European shares are in positive territory after the Bank of England lifted its GDP forecast, even after Germany's first-quarter GDP growth missed forecast and France entered recession.
U.S. stock futures were pointing to a lower open.
On Tuesday, the S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 47.50 points or 0.38 percent to 12,577.05.
The price of crude oil was extending losses Wednesday morning as traders await official data on the US crude oil inventories, due out later during the session. Analysts expect crude oil inventories to climb 450,000 barrels and gasoline stocks to shed 1.1 million barrels last week.
In an interesting development, a group of oil companies are being investigated by the European Commission over allegations of price-fixing. The commission said a series of surprise inspections were carried out on oil companies, including BP, Shell and Statoil.
Crude for June lost $0.85 to $93.36 a barrel.
The price of gold was extending losses Wednesday morning as the US dollar continued to trade firm versus a basket of currencies. Further, the Indian central bank this week banned gold imports through consignment and said that the measure was aimed to curb unnecessary speculative or transitory gold demand to a very large extent. Gold for June surrendered $11.50 to $1,413.00 an ounce.
In corporate news from Canada, Egypt focused gold miner Centamin plc (CEE.TO) reported higher first-quarter profit at $71.89 million or 6.591 cents per share compared to $50.81 million or 4.664 cents per share prior year. Further, the company said it remains on track in 2013 for a further increase in annual production of over 20 percent from 2012, and expects to meet full year production guidance of 320,000 ounces at US$700 per ounce cash operating cost.
Innergex Renewable Energy (INE.TO) slipped into the red in first-quarter, reporting net loss of C$178,000 or C$0.01 a share, compared with net profit of C$7.8 million or C$0.10 a share last year.Analysts estimated a loss of C$0.07 a share for the quarter.
Home furnishings retailer Leon's Furniture (LNF.TO) reported lower first quarter profit of C$5.4 million C$0.07 per share compared to C$8.6 million or C$0.12 per share in the year ago period.
In economic news, Statistics Canada said manufacturing sales edged down 0.3 percent to $49.5 billion in March, recording their its the third decline in four months. The decline largely reflects lower sales in the petroleum and coal product, and chemical manufacturing industries. Excluding these industries, sales rose 0.3 percent. Overall, sales declined in 10 of 21 industries, representing approximately one-third of Canadian manufacturing.
From south of the border, the U.S. Labor Department said producer prices dropped 0.7 percent in April, mainly due to a slide in energy prices. Core prices, which exclude the volatile food and energy sector, edged up by a modest 0.1 percent. Economists had expected the headline number to drop by 0.7 percent. Core prices were projected to rise by 0.2 percent.
Separately, the New York Federal Reserve said its Empire State Manufacturing Index came in at a negative 1.4 for May. This was down from a positive 3.1 in the previous month. Economists had expected the index to rise to a reading of positive 3.75.
Elsewhere, euro zone economy contracted more than expected by economists in the first quarter of 2013, preliminary data from Eurostat showed. The gross domestic product fell 0.2 percent quarter-on-quarter in the first quarter, faster than the expected 0.1 percent contraction. This followed a 0.6 percent decline in the fourth quarter of 2012.
Meanwhile, German economy narrowly escaped recession in the first quarter of 2013, but the growth was weaker than forecast. Germany's gross domestic product grew 0.1 percent quarter-on-quarter in the first quarter, after adjustment for price, seasonal and calendar variations. This was weaker than the 0.3 percent growth forecast by economists.
Separately, the Bank of England lifted its estimate for economic growth and forecast inflation to return to its 2 percent target earlier than projected. The BoE forecast economic growth to accelerate to 0.5 percent in the second quarter from 0.3 percent in first quarter of 2013.
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June 05, 2026 16:18 ET A busy week for economic news flow saw a slew of reports being released that reflected the trends in the U.S. labor market. In Europe, economic growth and inflation data gained attention as the European Central Bank and Bank of England head for policy session later in the month. In Asia, the monetary policy session of the Indian central bank was in focus as the country, a major oil importer, reels under the pressures of a weaker rupee and rising inflation.