Bay Street Likely To Open With Negative Gap

(RTTNews) - Falling commodity prices, concerns about global economic growth, and the likely impact of a global tech outage that has hit services from airlines, banks and financial services are likely to render the mood a bit bearish on Bay Street Friday morning.

Investors will also be reacting to Canadian retail sales, producer prices data.

Data on Canadian retail sales for the month of May, and producer and raw materials prices for the month of June, are due at 8:30 AM ET.

Retail sales are projected to have dropped by 0.6% in May, compared to the previous month, according to a flash estimate. In April, retail sales surged 0.7%.

Producer prices in Canada surged 1.8% (year-on-year) in May, while raw materials prices saw a 7.6% surge in the month.

After opening slightly down, the Canadian market kept edging lower and lower as the session progressed on Thursday, and the benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended with a loss of 124.41 points or 0.54% at 22,726.76. Asian stocks ended weak on Friday as U.S.-China tensions persisted and China's ruling Communist Party ended a top-level meeting without offering details to address economic difficulties. Tech stocks extended losses despite TSMC's earnings beat.

European stocks are down in negative territory, weighed down by falling commodity prices and a global tech sell-off.

A widespread Microsoft outage that hit services from airlines, banks and financial services has curbed investors' appetite for risk.

In commodities, West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures are down $0.39 or 0.47% at $82.43 a barrel.

Gold futures are down $42.80 or 1.74% at $2,413.60 an ounce, while Silver futures are lower by $0.874 or 2.89% at $29.350 an ounce. Copper futures are down $0.0295 or about 0.7% at $4.2500 per pound.