Canadian Shares Likely To Move In Tight Range

(RTTNews) - Canadian shares are likely to move in a tight range on Friday as traders may well prefer to stay on the sidelines due to a lack of triggers. Data on manufacturing activity in the U.S. will be in focus.

Data on Canadian retail sales for the month of September is due at 8:30 AM ET. Retail sales are expected to have stagnated in September, according to preliminary estimates. Considering August, retail sales fell by 0.1% from the previous month.

Hydro One Ltd (H.TO) announced on Thursday that it has completed C$46.9 million of transmission upgrades to power lines serving the city of Ottawa. The upgrades will boost the capacity of the lines to 1,080 megawatts from 650 megawatts, the company said and added that it has also replaced power lines and insulators on 12 kilometers of 230kV double circuit transmission line between Merivale Transmission Station and Hawthorne Transmission Station.

Bay Street ended flat for a second straight day as investors remained reluctant to make significant moves on Thursday.

The U.S. market remained shut yesterday for Thanksgiving Day holiday, and cues from Europe were not any significantly positive although most of the markets there managed to close higher.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended up 2.70 points or 0.01% at 20,116.66. The index, which advanced to 20,179.32 around mid morning, dropped to a low of 20,101.89 in the final hour.

Asian stocks turned in a mixed performance on Friday, with Chinese and Hong Kong markets underperforming after wealth manager Zhongzhi Enterprise Group told investors it is heavily insolvent with up to $64 billion in liabilities. Trading volumes were muted due to a holiday in the U.S. for Thanksgiving.

European stocks are up slightly around noon. The mood is cautious with bond yields edging higher on uncertainty about the rate outlook.

The euro strengthened and regional bond yields edged higher after Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel said the European Central Bank must resist any temptation to cut interest rates early.

Nagel also said he was "skeptical" about the risk of a 'hard landing' for the euro zone economy caused by the monetary policy squeeze.

Meanwhile, Bank of England's chief economist Huw Pill told the Financial Times that it was too early to declare victory in the battle against high inflation.

In commodities, West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures are down $0.32 or 0.42% at $76.78 a barrel.

Gold futures are up $3.70 or 0.19% at $1,996.50 an ounce, while Silver futures are higher by $0.077 or 0.33% at $23.765 an ounce.