Futures linked to Canada’s principal stock gauge ticked down on Friday after the S&P/TSX composite index registered a fresh intraday record in the previous session.
At 06:48 ET (11:48 GMT), the S&P/TSX 60 index standard futures contract was 3 points lower, a decline of roughly 0.2%.
On Thursday the broader S&P/TSX composite index advanced 1.1% to 34,501.96, eclipsing an all-time high set earlier in the week. The move higher was supported by robust bank earnings that buoyed Canada’s financial sector, along with a concurrent uptick in gold prices that contributed to risk appetite in resource-linked names.
Despite a modest pullback in spot gold heading into the final trading day of the week, the metal remained positioned to log its seventh straight positive month. Prices of other industrial and precious metals, including silver and copper, were reported to be rising as well.
U.S. indexes point lower
Across the border, U.S. equity futures were trading down on Friday morning, pointing to a softer end to the week as markets weighed a mix of earnings reactions and an upcoming release of wholesale inflation data that could influence monetary policy expectations.
At 07:02 ET, Dow Jones Futures were down 364 points, or 0.7%; S&P 500 Futures had declined by 39 points, or 0.6%; and Nasdaq 100 Futures slipped 155 points, or 0.6%.
On Thursday, U.S. benchmarks closed mixed. The S&P 500 fell 0.5%, the tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite dropped 1.2%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average eked out a gain of less than 0.1%.
Monthly performance showed the Nasdaq was on track to fall about 2.5% for the month, the S&P 500 to drop roughly 0.4%, and the Dow to rise around 1.2%, the latter benefiting from a rotation into less technology-focused sectors.
Earnings and stock movers
Chipmaker Nvidia, despite reporting strong quarterly results, was the largest single detractor on Wall Street on Thursday, sliding more than 5%. Market commentary attributed the move in part to investor questions about the company’s plans for returning capital to shareholders after a sharp increase in its cash balance, alongside some profit-taking following the stock’s recent run-up ahead of earnings.
Salesforce bucked the downbeat trend among large-cap tech names, with shares rising even after the company issued an annual revenue forecast that some investors perceived as underwhelming. Analysts at Vital Knowledge characterized the quarterly results as "no worse than feared."
In media and M&A developments, Netflix drew attention in premarket trade, jumping more than 6% after announcing it would not increase its proposal for Warner Bros. Discovery. Warner’s board had determined that an upgraded $31-a-share proposal from Paramount Skydance (NASDAQ:PSKY) represented a superior offer.
Netflix said that matching Paramount’s latest bid would render the deal "no longer financially attractive." The company stands to receive $2.8 billion in termination fees from Paramount if Warner opts for Paramount’s offer. Warner shareholders are scheduled to vote on the Netflix agreement on March 20.
Netflix’s decision to stop pursuing an outbidding strategy marks a potential close to one of the more prominent bidding contests in the media sector, in which both Netflix and Paramount had aggressively courted Warner’s studio assets and intellectual property.
Elsewhere, Block shares surged 18% after the payments firm announced plans to cut over 4,000 positions, roughly half its workforce, as part of a broader restructuring intended to accelerate the firm’s integration of artificial intelligence across its operations.
Cloud infrastructure provider CoreWeave fell more than 10% after reporting a wider-than-expected quarterly loss and guiding to higher capital expenditure as it continues to build out cloud capacity.
Macro calendar and Fed commentary
Investors were awaiting the release of the January producer price index later in the session, a key gauge of wholesale inflation. Economists expected the headline monthly reading to come in at 0.3%, with core PPI, which strips out energy and food, also forecast at 0.3%.
Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee provided remarks on monetary policy, expressing a view that further interest-rate reductions are possible this year while urging caution in the timing and pace of cuts. He said, "I have some confidence rates can come down several more times this year in 2026," and added that he did not want to "front load it too much before we actually have the evidence that the inflation is headed" back toward the Fed’s 2% objective.
Commodities: oil and gold
Energy markets ended the week with gains despite diplomatic talks between the United States and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear program continuing into an extended schedule. Brent crude futures climbed 2.4% to $72.51 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures rose 2.5% to $66.82 a barrel.
Officials said talks in Geneva concluded on Thursday without a clear, comprehensive agreement, but delegations plan to resume negotiations with technical-level meetings slated for next week in Vienna, according to Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi, who posted the update on X following the Geneva meetings.
Precious metals were steady to firmer. At 06:15 ET, spot gold ticked up 0.1% to $5,188.92 an ounce, and April gold futures were reported 0.2% higher at $5,205.84/oz. Spot gold was trading up more than 6% for February, having recovered from an intra-month decline that saw prices as low as $4,600/oz earlier in the month.
The interplay of strong domestic bank earnings, commodities strength, volatile responses in large-cap technology names, and imminent inflation data left markets in a cautious stance ahead of the weekend, with investors parsing corporate results and macro releases for signals on economic momentum and policy direction.