Canadian stocks are poised for a weak open Tuesday as energy prices continued to move lower on demand growth worries. While Asian stocks settled mixed overnight on speculation over Fed tapering its asset-purchase program dented investor sentiment, European shares were in negative territory, as data on German economic sentiment remained below expectations in May. An indicator of German investor confidence remained below expectations in May, despite a modest gain from April, a survey by the Centre For European Economic Research (ZEW) showed.
U.S stock futures were pointing to a lower open.
On Monday, the S&P/TSX Composite Index lost 59.54 points or 0.47 percent to 12,529.55.
The price of crude oil continued to move lower Tuesday morning on demand growth concerns and a steady US dollar. Barclay's, in its recent report, said China's oil demand growth has eased from 8 percent year-on-year between September last year to January to around 3 percent between February and April. The bank expects Chinese oil demand to grow 5 percent this year. Crude for June delivery shed $0.54 to $94.63 a barrel.
The price of gold was moving lower Tuesday morning, with the US dollar trading firm versus a basket of currencies amid a recent batch of upbeat macroeconomic data. Gold for June lost $12.60 to $1,421.70 an ounce.
In corporate news from Canada, West Africa focused gold miner Semafo Inc. (SMF.TO) slipped into the red in first-quarter, reporting net loss of $7.29 million or $0.03 per share, compared to earnings of $28.10 million or $0.10 per share in the same quarter last year. However, on an adjusted basis the company posted a profit of $19.6 million or $0.07 per share, down from $28.1 million or $0.10 per share a year ago.
Pan American Silver Corp. (PAA.TO) reported that its first-quarter net earnings declined to $20.08 million or share from last year's $50.24 million, with earnings per basic share decreasing to $0.13 from the prior year's $0.47 last year.
Real estate company Morguard Corp. (MRC.TO) reported first-quarter profit of C$99.6 million or C$7.89 per share, up from C$51.7 million or C$4.00 per share in the comparable quarter last year.
In economic news, the U.S. Labor Department said imports prices fell by 0.5 percent in April following a revised 0.2 percent drop in March. Economists had expected import prices to match the 0.5 percent decrease originally reported for the previous month. At the same time, the Labor Department said export prices slid 0.7 percent in April compared to a revised 0.5 percent decrease in March. Export prices had been expected to edge down by 0.1 percent.
From the euro zone, confidence among German investors increased less-than-expected in May as worries over the poor economic situation in euro zone continued to weigh, results of a survey by the Centre For European Economic Research (ZEW) revealed. The ZEW indicator of economic sentiment rose marginally to 36.4 in May from 36.3 in April. This was notably below the score of 40 forecast by economists. The outcome was, however, better than in March, when the indicator fell by 12.2 points.
Euro zone industrial production growth accelerated more than expected in March, largely due to an increase in energy output. Industrial output advanced 1 percent month-on-month in March, Eurostat reported. The rate of growth was bigger than the 0.3 percent rise seen in February and the 0.5 percent growth forecast by economists.
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