A Toronto Stock Exchange ticker is seen at The Exchange Tower in Toronto on August 18 2011. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Aaron Vincent Elkaim
October 12, 2012 - 8:09 AM
TORONTO - The Toronto stock market looked set for a positive start to Friday's session amid higher oil prices and a strong earnings report from American banking giant JPMorgan Chase.
The Canadian dollar rose 0.18 of a cent to 102.36 cents US.
New York futures were also positive after the bank handed in a record quarterly profit of US$5.7 billion, up 34 per cent from a year ago, as the bank set aside less money for bad loans. Earnings were $1.40 per share, far exceeding the $1.21 predicted by analysts polled by FactSet.
Revenue rose six per cent to $25.1 billion, beating expectations of $24.4 billion.
JPMorgan stock was up 0.88 per cent to US$42.10 in premarket trading. The stock was as low as $31 in early June, after the bank announced a surprise trading loss that ballooned to $6 billion.
The Dow Jones industrial futures climbed 22 points to 13,287, the Nasdaq futures gained 2.8 points to 2,716 while the S&P 500 futures were ahead 3.6 points to 1,432.
Earnings expectations are low for the third quarter as the eurozone debt crisis continues to take a toll on the economies in Europe, affecting the results of multinationals. The malaise has also spread to developing economies such as China.
Analysts expect a 2.1 per cent year-over-year decline in S&P 500 operating earnings, which would be the first year-over-year drop since the recession that followed the 2008 financial collapse.
Traders also took in better than expected earnings from U.S. bank Wells Fargo. It posted third-quarter earnings per share of 88 cents, beating estimates by a penny.
Fears that the conflict in Syria could widen and threaten oil shipments from the Mideast continued to push crude prices higher. The November contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 21 cents to US$92.28 a barrel.
Metal prices backed off as December copper edged two cents lower to US$3.73 a pound while December bullion was off 60 cents to US$1,770 an ounce.
European bourses were weak as London's FTSE 100 dipped 0.16 per cent, Frankfurt's DAX was down 0.12 per cent and the Paris CAC 40 declined 0.16 per cent.
Earlier in Asia, markets were mixed by the close.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index ended a bad week with another 0.2 per cent decline. Telephone company Softbank led the way lower after it plunged 16.9 per cent on news that it is in talks to take a substantial stake in U.S. carrier Sprint Nextel Corp.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng advanced 0.7 per cent and South Korea’s Kospi was flat.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2012