Morning Briefing: Commodities drag world markets lower

Commodities drag world markets lower

Equity markets are generally lower Friday as weak commodity prices take their toll; and ahead of US non-farms payroll data.

Although oil and gold prices stabilized in early trading, they remain weak by recent standards and no immediate sign of improvement. Oil remains below $50 this morning.

Asian markets closed lower with Japan and Seoul closed for public holidays.

European indexes are also trending lower with mixed earnings reports and the French election this weekend also part of the region’s watch-list. Various positive PMI indexes for the Eurozone, France and Germany have failed to push indexes above the line.

Wall Street and Toronto are expected to open flat. US and Canadian employment data is due.
 

	Latest	1 month ago	1 year ago
North America (previous session)
US Dow Jones	20,951.47 (-0.03 per cent)	+1.47 per cent	+18.63 per cent
TSX Composite	15,396.70 (-0.94 per cent)	-1.57 per cent	+12.95 per cent
Europe (at 5.00am ET)
UK FTSE	7,254.78 (+0.09 per cent)	-1.05 per cent	+18.60 per cent
German DAX	12,605.73 (-0.33 per cent)	+3.18 per cent	+27.95 per cent
Asia (at close)
China CSI 300	3,382.55 (-0.64 per cent)	-3.46 per cent	+5.25 per cent
Japan Nikkei	19,445.70 (+0.70 per cent)	+2.44 per cent	+20.43 per cent
Other Data (at 5.00am ET)
Oil (Brent)	Oil (WTI)	Gold	Can. Dollar
48.57 (+0.39 per cent)	45.55 (+0.07 per cent)	1233.00 (+0.36 per cent)	U$0.7266
			Aus. Dollar
			U$0.7395

Don’t be protectionist, try harder GE boss tells companies

Protectionist policies are not the way to boost the US economy, trying harder to be competitive is.

That was a key message from the co-chief executive of General Electric as he spoke at Georgetown University Thursday.

Reuters reports that Jeff Immelt said that the Trump administration should push ahead with tax reform, better trade agreements and revived export financing to create a level playing field for US companies.

Immelt said that pure free trade is not possible due to public sentiment but he warned that “we have the most to lose through protectionism.”