Bay Street Likely To Open With Positive Bias

(RTTNews) - The Canadian market is likely to open with a positive bias on Friday, tracking higher crude oil prices.

Amid a lack of fresh triggers on the economic or earnings front, movements are likely to be a bit sluggish at times.

Worries about China's Covid surge might hurt sentiment and limit market's upside.

The Canadian market ended modestly higher on Thursday after a highly lackluster session as investors largely refrained from making significant moves amid a lack of fresh triggers.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended with a gain of 61.81 points or 0.3% at 20,344.07 after moving between 20,309.15 and 20,386.69.

Asian stocks turned in a mixed performance on Friday but posted weekly gains on optimism over a less hawkish Fed. A cautious undertone prevailed amid concerns over record-high domestic daily Covid-19 cases in China.

European stocks are turning in a mixed performance in cautious trade today following the minutes of the European Central Bank meeting giving a hawkish tone indicating that rates would need to rise further to curb inflation.

The euro rose for the fourth straight day against the dollar after ECB's Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel said that "incoming data so far suggest that the room for slowing down the pace of rate adjustments remains limited".

Investors also fretted about rising COVID-19 cases in China, with the country logging a record high increase in daily infections.

In commodities trading, West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December are up $1.42 or 1.82% at $79.36 a barrel.

Gold futures are gaining $4.50 or 0.26% at $1,750.10 an ounce, while Silver futures are down $0.082 or 0.4% at $21.285 an ounce.