Bay Street Likely To Open On Slightly Weak Note

(RTTNews) - Weak Canadian and U.S. futures, lower precious metals prices and concerns about inflation and interest rates could weigh on Canadian stocks Tuesday morning. Investors look ahead to Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday.

Oil prices rose sharply amid persisting concerns over supply disruptions. Amid a lack of fresh economic data and earnings news, the market may stay in a tight range.

Canadian stocks ended nearly flat on Monday after inflation data lowered concerns of a near-term rate hike by the Bank of Canada while traders assessed fresh crude oil supply concerns after Saudi Arabia announced the closure of its East-West pipeline on Friday.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index remained volatile throughout the session before settling at 35,702.53, up by 5.04 points.

Asian stocks ended mostly lower on Tuesday amid heightened Middle East tensions and concerns over the pace of artificial intelligence development.

Investors also digested a slew of Chinese data and looked ahead to Wednesday's Federal Reserve policy meeting and Friday's Bank of Japan rate decision for directional cues.

The major European markets recovered on Tuesday after dropping to multi-week lows in early trades. Some weak regional economic data, rising oil prices and global bond yields weighed on stocks and investors stayed largely cautious, looking ahead to policy announcements from the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan.

In commodities trading, West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures climbed to $104.21 a barrel before dropping to $102.29 (up 0.9%).

Gold futures are down $28.10 or 0.65% at $4,323.80 an ounce, while Silver futures are down $0.428 or 0.67% at $63.710 an ounce.