Trading overnight was relatively quiet with several Asia-Pacific markets closed heading into the Lunar New Year holidays. European markets have been flat to slightly positive with the Dax rising 0.7%. US index futures are pointing toward a higher open this morning with gains of 0.25% to 0.50% after finishing essentially flat yesterday, with the Dow Industrials managing to close at a new all-time high.
Commodity action has been mixed overnight. Natural Gas is soaring again, up 3.35% while platinum is up another 1.2% and copper is up 0.4%. WTI crude oil, on the other hand, is down 0.6%. Gold and silver are up 0.2% and 0.6% respectively.
Earnings reports continue to roll out on both sides of the border, particularly in Canada, where Bombardier announced a larger than expected loss (-$0.20 vs street -$0.70), and more layoffs as it intends to shut down its LearJet program this year. Movie theatre chain Cineplex Odeon lost $230.4M or $3.64/share as Q4 revenues plunged to $52.5M from $443.2M in the same quarter a year ago. Tim Hortons parent Restaurant Brands also reported disappointing earnings per share ($0.53 vs street $0.66) as same store sales fell 11% over year at Tims, 7.9% at Burger King and 5.8% at Popeyes.
American earnings reports overnight were also mixed. Pepsico beat the street ($1.47 vs street $1.46, 5% dividend increase), while Uber posted a slightly worse loss than expected (-$0.54 vs street -$0.52). Walt Disney is scheduled to report after the close today.
US weekly jobless claims were slightly worse than expected both initial (793K vs street 757K) and continuing (4.55M vs street 4.490M). Weekly natural gas storage is due at 11:00 am EDT with the street expecting a 181 BCF drawdown, slightly less than last week’s 192 BCF drawdown.
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