Canadian Market Likely To Open With Negative Bias

(RTTNews) - Canadian shares are likely to open with a negative bias Friday morning with investors tracking commodity prices and weak European stocks. Concerns about geopolitical tensions and uncertainty over interest rate trajectory are likely to weigh on sentiment.

Despite concerns about the outlook for Fed interest rates, Bay Street ended on a positive note on Thursday, thanks largely to some sustained buying at several counters in the materials and utilities sectors.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended with a gain of 52.39 points or 0.24% at 21,708.44, after scaling a low of 21,601.59 and a high of 21,799.35 intraday.

Asian stocks tumbled on Friday as Israel launched strikes against Iran, in what appeared to be limited retaliatory action for last week's drone and missile barrage by Tehran.

European stocks are lower amid rising tensions in the Middle East in the aftermath of Israel's retaliatory strikes against Iran. Also, hawkish comments from Federal Reserve officials led investors to scale back their expectations for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates this year.

In commodities, West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures are down $0.56 or 0.68% at $82.17 a barrel.

Gold futures are down $2.50 or 0.11% at $2,395.50 an ounce, while Silver futures are lower by $0.055 or 0.19% at $28.325 an ounce.