TORONTO - The Toronto stock market looked to start off little changed Wednesday as traders anticipate the announcement of stimulus measures to help the eurozone recovery and look to American employment numbers coming out at the end of the week.
The Canadian dollar was down 0.14 of a cent to 91.52 cents US ahead of the Bank of Canada's mid-morning announcement on interest rates.
U.S. futures were negative with the Dow Jones industrial futures down 14 points to 16,699, the Nasdaq futures declined seven points to 3,723.8 and the S&P 500 futures were three points lower to 1,919.
Markets are counting on European Central Bank president Mario Draghi to announce measures Thursday aimed at giving a lift to the eurozone's weak recovery and saving the region from falling into a deflationary spiral that would choke off growth. Worries about deflation increased Tuesday in the wake of data showing that inflation in the eurozone came in at 0.5 per cent in May, down from 0.7 per cent in April. The latest data also showed that gross domestic product in the eurozone grew by a paltry 0.2 per cent in the first quarter.
Analysts are looking at a variety of options for the ECB, including an interest rate cut or a form of quantitative easing.
Traders are looking for a strong reading from the U.S. non-farm payrolls report coming down Friday morning, with economists forecasting that about 219,000 jobs were created during May following a much stronger expected 288,000 gain in April.
Ahead of that report, payroll firm ADP reported Wednesday that the U.S. private sector created 179,000 jobs last month.
Canadian job figures for May also come out Friday and economists expect about 21,000 jobs were created after the economy shed 29,000 the previous month.
On the commodity markets, the July crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange gained 64 cents to US$103.30 a barrel.
August bullion climbed $2.30 to US$1,246.80 an ounce and July copper fell five cents to US$3.09 a pound.
On the corporate front, WestJet (TSX:WJA) says it flew 1.6 million passengers in May, a 5.1 per cent increase from the same time last year. That’s increase of 77,000 passengers last month. The Calgary-based airline says it had a load factor of 79 per cent, up from 78.5 per cent year-over-year.