Bay Street Likely To Open Slightly Higher

(RTTNews) - Canadian shares look headed for a positive start Monday morning, tracking higher crude oil prices and slightly positive European stocks.

With the Federal Reserve scheduled to announce its interest rate decision on Wednesday, the mood is likely to remain somewhat cautious for much of the day's session.

The Federal Reserve is widely expected to hike interest rates by 75 basis points.

In company news, Rogers Communications Inc. (RCI.TO) said Sunday that it will invest C$10 billion over the next three years in more oversight, testing and Artificial Intelligence. Rogers' chief executive officer Tony Staffieri has outlined the company's "enhanced reliability plan" in response to recent outage, which left millions in Canada without cellphone and internet service for some days.

Staffieri says Rogers has made progress on a formal agreement between carriers to switch 911 calls to each other's networks automatically - even in the event of an outage on any carrier's network.

The Canadian market snapped a five-day winning streak and drifted lower on Friday, as worries about slowing growth and policy tightening weighed on stocks. The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended with a loss of 79.93 points or 0.42% at 18,982.92, after scaling a low of 18,911.89 and a high of 19,141.65 intraday.

Asian stocks ended broadly lower on Monday as weak business activity data from Europe and the United States coupled with anxiety about China's property market added to worries about a recession.

European stocks have recovered after a weak start and are modestly higher in early afternoon trades with investors looking ahead to corporate earnings updates and the U.S. Federal Reserve's policy announcement, due on Wednesday.

In commodities trading, West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September are up $0.98 or 1.03% at $95.68 a barrel.

Gold futures are down $1.70 or 0.1% at $1,725.70 an ounce, while Silver futures are lower by $0.102 or 0.55% at $18.515 an ounce.