Jul 20, 2021
The Daily Chase: Stocks set to rebound; Loonie at lowest since February
By Noah Zivitz
Markets have been moving into a series of rolling take-downs: Colin Cieszynski
North American stocks are poised to stage a partial rebound at the start of trading after yesterday’s sell-almost-everything tumble that saw the S&P/TSX Composite Index drop the most since February, while the S&P 500 had its worst showing since May. Importantly though, both closed off their lowest levels of the day. We’ll get plenty of insight today on the signals being sent by the U.S. 10-year treasury yield (which was back above 1.2 per cent earlier this morning) and whether a buy-the-dip mentality will take hold for equities today.
LOONIE AT FIVE-MONTH LOW
The Canadian dollar at one point yesterday was down by as much as 1.19 cents against the U.S. dollar and now sits at its lowest level since early February. No doubt yesterday’s rout in crude oil prices played a big role in knocking down the loonie. We’ll explore all the factors at play with currency strategist Karl Schamotta in The Open.
BLAST OFF
The world’s richest person heads into space today, when Blue Origin’s New Shepard takes off around 9 a.m. with Amazon Founder and Executive Chair Jeff Bezos on board. We’ll have plenty of on-the-ground coverage throughout the day via our Bloomberg partners. And Jon will have some context in The Open on how you can invest in space tourism.
OTHER NOTABLE STORIES
- IBM’s pivot to the cloud paid off in the latest quarter, with revenue from those operations rallying 13 per cent to power total sales above the average estimate. Shares are have been almost four per cent higher in pre-market trading.
- PrairieSky Royalty is on our radar this morning after the company announced it’s raising its dividend 38 per cent to nine cents per share and paying $155 million for a royalty interest in production owned by Spur Petroleum in Alberta’s Marten Hills Clearwater play.
- Viavi Solutions said today it will boost its takeover proposal for Quebec-based Exfo to US$8.00 per share in cash from US$7.50. That compares to the privatization arrangement that's in place whereby Exfo Founder Germain Lamonde will buy the network-monitoring company for US$6.00 per share. Lamonde has previously stated he will not sell his shares to Viavi.
NOTABLE RELEASES/EVENTS
- Notable data: Teranet/National Bank home price index, U.S. building permits and housing starts
- Notable earnings: Canadian National Railway, Netflix, Halliburton, United Airlines
- 11:30: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau makes housing announcement in Hamilton, Ont. (plus avail)
- 12:30: Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland makes announcement in Longueuil, Que. (plus avail)