The Toronto Stock Exchange Broadcast Centre is shown in Toronto on June 28, 2013. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Aaron Vincent Elkaim
March 25, 2014 - 5:20 AM
TORONTO - The Toronto stock market was in for a positive open Tuesday ahead of the latest U.S. data on new home sales and consumer confidence.
The Canadian dollar slipped 0.06 of a cent to 89.27 cents US.
U.S. futures were positive as the Dow Jones industrial futures ran up 60 points to 16,262, the Nasdaq futures were ahead nine points to 3,620 while the S&P 500 futures climbed six points to 1,855.5.
Traders also monitored comments on the direction of interest rates from Charles Plosser, the president of the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank.
He told CNBC he expects that short-term interest rates should hit "two-something" at the end of 2015 and three per cent at the end of 2016.
Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen caught markets unaware last week when she said that the Fed could start increasing rates from near zero about six months after the end of its bond buying program.
Plosser said the reaction surprised him, saying her timetable "wasn’t a wildly unexpected timeframe".
Meanwhile, economists expect February data to show year over year growth in new home sales slowed to an annualized pace of 440,000, down from 468,000 in January.
A commentary from TD Economics noted that such a showing would be consistent with weather-related weakness in other economic indicators.
Investors will also take in the latest house price data from the S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city composite and the Federal Housing Finance Agency house-price index. Both are expected to show muted price action for January.
The Conference Board releases its latest take on consumer confidence mid-morning.
Stocks put in a negative performance Monday in the wake of a report showing a further contraction in China's manufacturing sector. On top of that, investors worry that the Chinese government won't be moving in with stimulus measures as it has in the past.
Elsewhere on the economic front, business confidence in Germany has slipped back from a 2 1/2-year high as tensions over Ukraine cloud companies’ outlook for the next six months. The Ifo institute said its monthly confidence index dropped to 110.7 points this month from 111.3 in February. That was slightly worse than the 110.9 economists had predicted.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has stressed that she wants a diplomatic solution to the crisis over Russia’s actions in Ukraine but has made clear she won’t shy away from economic sanctions if the situation there escalates.
Commodities advanced as May crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange gained 48 cents to US$100.08 a barrel.
April bullion climbed $1.80 to US$1,313 an ounce while May copper was up four cents to Us$2.99 a pound.
European bourses were positive as London's FTSE 100 index rose 1.14 per cent, Frankfurt's DAX gained 1.56 per cent and the Paris CAC 40 was up 1.39 per cent.
Earlier in Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed 0.4 per cent lower, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.5 per cent while China’s Shanghai Composite rose 0.5 per cent.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2014