Bay Street Seen Opening On Mixed Note

(RTTNews) - Canadian shares are likely to open on a mixed note on Thursday, with investors continuing to assess the likely impact of the sharp interest rate hikes by the Fed, and the Bank of England, on global economic growth.

Higher crude oil prices could trigger some buying in the energy space.

Data on new housing prices in Canada for the month of August is due at 8:30 AM ET. New home prices in Canada increased by 0.1% from a month earlier in July of 2022, the smallest rise in two years.

The Canadian market ended notably lower on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by another 75 basis points, and signaled some more aggressive rate increases at the upcoming meetings.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended with a loss of 184.15 points or 0.95% at 19,184.54.

Asian stocks declined on Thursday after U.S. Federal Reserve officials announced another big rate hike and reiterated their support for further interest-rate hikes to curb rampant inflation reaching a 40-year high.

The U.S. central bank now sees its benchmark interest rate reaching 4.4 percent by end-2022 and rising even further in 2023 despite growing headwinds to economic growth and the labor market.

European stocks are firmly down in negative territory in early afternoon trades on Thursday amid concerns the rate hikes announced by some global central banks could significantly slow down global economic growth.

Despite fears of a recession, Bank of England policymakers raised the benchmark rate by a half percentage point today, in a 3-way split vote, taking the rate to the highest since 2008.

The nine-member rate-setting committee decided to raise the bank rate by 50 basis points to 2.25% from 1.75%.

The Swiss National Bank raised its key policy rate for the second straight meeting on Thursday, ending an era of negative rates to tame inflation that stays near a three-decade high. The central bank hiked the SNB policy rate by 0.75 percentage points to 0.5%, as expected, and also signaled more rate hikes going forward.

In commodities trading, West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures are up $0.89 or 1.07% at $83.83 a barrel.

Gold futures are up $1.00 or 0.06% at $1,676.70 an ounce, while Silver futures are gaining $0.110 or 0.56% at $19.590 an ounce.