Futures Fade on Virus Fears

Canada's main stock index futures dipped on Monday, as fears of tighter lockdown restrictions over a spike in coronavirus cases globally outweighed gains in oil and gold prices.

The S&P/TSX Composite Index faltered 98.71 points to close Thursday at 17,916.20

The Canadian dollar poked up 0.02 cents to 78.60 cents U.S.

March futures slid 0.2% Monday.

Potential buyers say the expansion of Canadian government-owned Trans Mountain pipeline assumes greater importance for the oil sector after the cancellation of rival Keystone XL reduced future options to carry crude.

National Bank of Canada raised the target price on Home Capital Group to $42.00 from $34.00

Citigroup raised the price target on Cenovus Energy to $11.00 from $8.00

Scotiabank raised the target price on Wajax Corp. to $25.00 from $22.00.

ON BAYSTREET

The TSX Venture Exchange shook off early losses and propelled itself higher 8.22 points to close out Friday at 947.43. The Venture gained on the week 49 points, or 5.48%.

ON WALLSTREET

S&P 500 futures rose early Monday, as Wall Street prepares for the busiest week of earnings, which will include reports from some of the largest tech companies.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrials toppled 116 points, or 0.4% points, to 30,793.

Futures for the S&P 500 gained 3.25 points, or 0.1%, at 3,837.50.

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Futures for the NASDAQ Composite jumped 121.75 points, or 0.9%, to 13,483.25.

This coming week 13 Dow components and 111 S&P 500 companies are set to report earnings. Among the quarterly reports on deck include those from Apple, Microsoft, Netflix, Tesla, McDonald’s, Honeywell, Caterpillar and Boeing.

Apple shares gained 2% in pre-market trading to about $142 a share before its quarterly report Wednesday after the bell. Tesla, which also reports Wednesday, was up 1.5%.

Companies kicked off the earnings session on a strong note. Of the S&P 500 components that have already reported earnings, 73% have beaten on both sales and EPS, according to data from Bank of America. The firm said this is tracking similar to last quarter when the number of companies beating hit a record.

Wall Street is coming off a winning week amid the strength in the technology sector. The Dow registered its fifth positive week in six while the S&P 500 posted its third positive week in four. The NASDAQ advanced 4.19% last week for its best week since November and the fifth positive week in six as shares of Big Tech names pushed the index to a new all-time high.

The move higher came as President Joe Biden tries to push through a $1.9-trillion stimulus program that many congressional Republicans oppose. The fiscal aid includes direct checks to millions of Americans, aid to state and local governments, funding for COVID vaccines and testing, a boost to the minimum wage and enhanced unemployment benefits, among other things.

Overseas, in Japan, the Nikkei 225 took on 0.7%, while in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index zoomed 2.4%.

Oil prices picked up eight cents to $52.35 U.S. a barrel.

Gold prices gathered $7.10 to $1,863.30 U.S.