Toronto stock market to open little changed, traders look to U.S. housing data

TORONTO – The Toronto stock market looked to start Friday’s session little changed at the end of a positive week.

The Canadian dollar was down 0.06 of a cent to 91.74 cents US ahead of the release of the April reading on the consumer price index.

U.S. futures were slightly higher heading into the long Memorial Day weekend with the Dow Jones industrial futures gained 11 points to 16,539, the Nasdaq futures were 5.3 points higher to 3,653.3 and the S&P 500 futures added 1.5 points to 1,891.75.

Traders looked ahead to the release of new-home sales data for April. Economists expect that sales rebounded for the month, with the annual rate rising to 429,000 from 384,000 in March. But that is still below levels of 446,000 a year ago.

Figures released Thursday showed existing-home sales rose 1.3 per cent in April, the fastest pace since December.

Elsewhere on the economic front, a closely watched survey shows that German business confidence has dipped, with companies less optimistic about both their current situation and the outlook for the next six months. The Ifo institute said Friday that its confidence index, a key indicator for Europe’s biggest economy, slipped to 110.4 points this month from 111.2 in April.

Standard & Poor’s rating agency has upgraded Spain’s sovereign credit grade a notch to BBB, the third agency to do so in recent months and a further sign the country is turning the corner after five years of economic turmoil. The agency cited improved economic prospects and praising the conservative government’s structural and labour reforms since 2010.

The TSX registered a solid gain Thursday in the wake of quarterly earnings results from Royal Bank (TSX:RY) and TD Bank (TSX:TD) that blew past analyst expectations. The rest of the big banks report next week.

The earnings helped push the TSX financial sector up 1.25 per cent this week. The other big gainer has been the base metals group, up 1.5 per cent thanks in part to data showing a strengthening Chinese manufacturing sector.

On the commodity markets, July crude in New York gained 25 cents to US$103.99 a barrel, June bullion faded $3.10 to US$1,291.90 an ounce while July copper rose two cents to US$3.16 a pound.

In corporate news, French energy company Total SA is hooking up with Russia’s largest private oil company, Lukoil, to explore and develop a huge Siberian shale oil field. The deal signed Friday with Russia’s Lukoil comes despite European and U.S. sanctions and anger over Russia’s role in Ukraine’s political crisis. The value of the deal wasn’t disclosed.