The Toronto stock market could find early lift from energy stocks as oil prices continued to advance on signs of improving economic activity in China and the U.S.
Traders also kept an eye on Europe where Greece resumes discussions with private creditors to get them to agree to reduce the value of their holdings of the country’s debt.
The Canadian dollar rose 0.12 of a cent to 98.62 cents US.
U.S. futures were also higher with the Dow Jones industrial futures ahead 18 points to 12,438, the Nasdaq futures gained 8.25 points to 2,398 while the S&P 500 futures climbed 2.1 points to 1,291.4.
The February crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange gained 95 cents to US$101.66 a barrel, on top of a $2 jump Tuesday.
Traders were encouraged by data showing that China, the world’s second largest economy, reported 8.9% growth in the fourth quarter, slower than the previous quarter but strong enough to indicate it would avoid an abrupt slowdown. Retail and factory production improved while oil demand was up 6.4% in 2011 from 2010, according to data cited by Barclays Capital.
In the U.S., government data showed manufacturing in New York expanded at the fastest pace in nine months.
There was little change in other commodity prices as March copper was unchanged at US$3.73 after the Chinese economic report in particular sent the metal jumping nine cents Tuesday. China is the world’s biggest copper consumer.
And February gold on the Nymex dipped $1.50 to US$1,654.10 an ounce.
Meanwhile, investors remain nervous about what may happen with Greek debt talks following a breakdown in talks last Friday.
Without a deal with its private creditors, Greece has been told it won’t get the next instalment of money due from its first bailout. Without that money, Greece would be unable to pay a big bond redemption in March, potentially triggering a chain of events that could derail the global economic recovery and cause financial mayhem in Europe.
Sentiment was improved somewhat by comments made late Tuesday from Christine Lagarde, the International Monetary Fund’s managing director. She said that the Washington D.C.-based institution was looking at ways to increase its financial firepower, partly to deal with Europe’s debt crisis.
European markets were mixed as London’s FTSE 100 index slipped 0.02%, Frankfurt’s DAX gained 0.24% while the Paris CAC 40 climbed 0.17%.
Earlier in Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index rose one per cent while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.3%.
However, mainland Chinese shares fell on profit-taking after a brisk day of trade Tuesday that saw the biggest gains in 27 months. The Shanghai Composite Index lost 1.4% while the Shenzhen Composite Index dropped 2.7%.
In corporate news, AbitibiBowater Inc., a newsprint producer now known as Resolute Forest Products (TSX:ABH), has asked Quebec regulators to kill a poison pill defence set up by Fibrek Inc. to fight off its $130 million hostile takeover bid. Fibrek has rejected the takeover offer as too low and set up a shareholder rights plan to thwart the deal. The plan would make it difficult for an offer to succeed without Fibrek’s board approval.