OLI: Stock markets head for weak open; crude oil falls for sixth straight day
TORONTO _ The Toronto stock market could be headed for a third straight loss amid falling oil prices and hopes for a quick economic rebound.
Oil prices were lower for a sixth straight day from a peak of above US$73 last week as investors think demand prospects do not warrant the sharp runup in prices seen over the past few months.
The August crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 62 cents to US$62.31 a barrel after tumbling $1.12 on Tuesday.
The Canadian dollar rose 0.01 of a cent to 85.77 cents US.
Sliding oil prices contributed to a 183-point plunge on the Toronto market on Tuesday, the second straight triple-digit tumble this week.
U.S. markets headed for a flat opening after also sustaining big losses on Tuesday.
Dow Jones industrial average futures are up one point at 8,130, while the broader Standard & Poorīs 500 index futures are down 0.6 of a point at 878.7. Nasdaq 100 index futures are down 1.25 points at 1,406.75.
The second-quarter earnings reporting season kicks off in the U.S. after the close and investors are awaiting for aluminum maker Alcoa Inc. to give some guidance about the economy.
Wall Street analysts expect Alcoa to post a second-quarter loss of 38 cents per share. In the same period a year earlier, Alcoa earned 66 cents per share on revenue of US$7.6 billion.
Overseas markets were also weak.
Japanīs benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average extended its losing streak to a sixth day, falling 2.2 per cent to 9,434.91, after worse-than-expected machinery orders data disappointed investors and fanned concerns about the fragility of the worldīs second-biggest economy.
A recovery in capital spending "remains distant," especially with Japanīs high dependence on exports, said Chiwoong Lee, an economist at Goldman Sachs in Tokyo.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index slid 301 points, or 1.7 per cent, to 17,560.97.
Londonīs FTSE 100 index dipped 0.14 per cent, Frankfurtīs DAX was off 0.05 per cent while the Paris CAC 40 lost 0.8 per cent.
Losses on stock markets have accelerated in the past week amid economic data that has suggested global economies still have a long way to go before going into recovery mode.
Unemployment in Europe surged in May to a 10-year high with more than 15 million people out of work. In the United States, the jobless rate jumped to a 26-year high of 9.5 per cent in June as U.S. employers cut a larger-than-expected 467,000 jobs.
Canadian job data for June is released Friday and economists expect it to show the economy shed about 30,000 jobs during the month.
Other commodity prices fell alongside oil. The August bullion contract on the Nymex was down $8.10 to US$921 an ounce while the September copper contract in New York was off a penny to US$2.21 a pound.
