Bay Street Likely To Open On Mixed Note

(RTTNews) - Canadian shares are likely to open mixed Tuesday morning with investors largely staying cautious ahead of U.S. consumer price inflation data and Fed's monetary policy announcement, due later in the week.

The Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, but traders will pay closer attention to Fed officials' updated projections for the economy and rates.

Fairfax Financial Holdings Inc (FFH.TO) announced that it has raised its stake in Ensign Energy Services (ESI.TO), buying 3.79 million shares of Ensign, at a price of $2.34 per share (Monday's closing price).

Copperleaf Technologies Inc (CPLF.TO) announced that it has signed a deal with Industrial and Financial Systems as per which the latter will indirectly acquire all of the outstanding common shares of Copperleaf at $12 a share.

Descartes Systems Group (DSG.TO) said it has acquired BoxTop Technologies Ltd, a maker of software for logistics services companies, for US$13 million.

On the economic front, data from Statistics Canada showed that building permits in Canada increased to 20.5% (month-on-month) in April from -12.3% in March.

The Canadian market ended modestly higher on Monday, lifted by gains in technology, energy and materials shares. The mood remained cautious with investors awaiting the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement, and the data on U.S. consumer price inflation.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended up by 62.76 points or 0.29% at 22,069.76 after moving in a very tight range, scaling a low of 21,953.44 and a high of 22,105.69.

Asian stocks closed mostly lower on Tuesday as gains by the far right in voting for the European Parliament added uncertainty to the EU's political landscape and investors awaited key U.S. inflation data and the outcome of the Federal Reserve's policy meeting.

Interest rate concerns weighed as well, with investors seeing diminished prospects for easing this year.

European stocks are down firmly in negative territory as investors await Wednesday's U.S. consumer price data and the Federal Reserve interest-rate decision.

In commodities, West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures are down $0.27 or 0.35% at $77.47 a barrel.

Gold futures are up $6.90 or 0.3% at $2,333.90 an ounce, while Silver futures are down $0.246 or 0.82% at $29.628 an ounce.