TSX Futures Climb as U.S. Holds Off on Mideast Military Move
Canadian equity futures ticked up Friday as markets breathed a temporary sigh of relief, with concerns over potential U.S. military escalation in the Israel-Iran standoff showing signs of easing.
Market Numbers (Futures)
TSX :Up ( 0.20%) 26,559.01TSXV: Down (0.37%) 715.97DOW: Up (0.11%) 42,234.00NASDAQ: Up (0.17%) 21,758.25
FTSE: Up (0.41%) 8,827.97
In the Headlines:
Canada's struggling EV market just got hammered harder, as workers say new tariffs are triggering production cuts and job losses across the industry.
And Canada Post locked in a deal with its second-largest union, giving rural workers an 11% raise, while talks with CUPW remain on the table.
Currencies Update: (Futures)
The Canadian dollar is down 0.08% to $0.7298 U.S., also in the red against the Euro by 0.27% to $0.6314 and Bitcoin is up 1.03% to 145,246.94
Commodities: (Futures)
Natural Gas: Up (3.44%), 4.13WTI: Down (2.33%), 73.37Gold: Down (0.70%), 3,347.07
Copper: Up (1.34%) 6.14
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Chuck Carlson, chief executive officer at Horizon Investment Services, said U.S. stocks might initially sell off should Trump order the U.S. military to become more heavily involved in the Israel-Iran conflict, but that a faster escalation might also bring the situation to an end sooner. 'I could see the initial knee-jerk would be, 'this is bad',' Carlson said. 'I think it will bring things to a head quicker.' Wednesday's dip in crude, along with a modest 0.3% increase in the S&P 500, came after Trump declined to answer reporters' questions about whether the U.S. was planning to strike Iran but said Iran had proposed to come for talks at the White House. Adding to uncertainty, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected Trump's demand for unconditional surrender. U.S. Treasury yields fell as concerns over the war in Iran boosted safe haven demand for the debt. 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The S&P 500 Aerospace and Defense index hit record highs early last week in the culmination of a rebound of over 30% from losses in the wake of Trump's April 2 'Liberation Day' tariff announcements. Even after the latest geopolitical uncertainty, the S&P 500 remains just 2% below its February record high close. 'Investors want to be able to look past this, and until we see reasons to believe that this is going to be a much larger regional conflict with the U.S. perhaps getting involved and a high chance of escalating, you're going to see the market want to shrug this off as much as it can,' Osman Ali, global co-head of Quantitative Investment Strategies, said at an investor conference on Wednesday.
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