Canadian investors are likely to be more concerned

Premarket: Banks and energy in the spotlight

Thursday, February 28, 2008
Enough with Ben Bernanke and his ruminations on inflation. On Thursday, Canadian investors are likely to be more concerned with their own affairs with a busy round of earnings releases that will help gauge the health of the Canadian economy.
Toronto-Dominion Bank beat estimates when it released its first quarter results before markets opened. Profits at the one Canadian bank that managed to avoid the U.S. subprime morass rose 5.3 per cent to $1.45 a share.
National Bank of Canada also beat estimates and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce releases its own first-quarter results this morning.
In the energy sector, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. produced fourth-quarter profits that were more than double last year’s results but nonetheless failed to match analyst expectations. Meanwhile, Talisman Energy, which has been a notable laggard in the sector, announced that its fourth-quarter profit rose 9.7 per cent but came in well below expectations.
In the United States, investors will get to mull over weekly jobless claims, which will shed additional light on the state of the economic slowdown there, and the release of fourth quarter numbers on gross domestic product, which should summarize what everyone already knows: the economy is weaker. As well, they will be treated to another appearance from Mr. Bernanke, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, who speaks before the Senate Panel on Monetary Policy at 10 a.m. (EST).
Stock market futures for the S&P 500 fell 8.4 points, to 1372, before the start of trading. Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average fell 60 points, to 12,633.
In Europe, the U.K.’s FTSE 100 fell 1.1 per cent in afternoon trading there. And Germany’s DAX index fell 1.1 per cent. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.8 per cent.

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