Bay Street Likely To See Wild Swings

(RTTNews) - Canadian stocks may see some wild swings on Monday, in line with the volatile moments in the commodities markets. Gold and silver prices started off on a very weak note today, extending last week's severe setback, but regained some lost ground subsequently.

Gold futures, which dropped to $4,423.20 an ounce, are at $4,819.00, gaining about 1.55%, while Silver futures recovered to $82.185 an ounce, gaining about $3.50 or 4.5%, after having tumbled to $71.200 an ounce earlier.

West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures are down $3.42 or 5.25% at $61.79 a barrel, after U.S. President Donald Trump said he was hopeful of agreeing a deal with Iran.

The Canadian market tumbled on Friday as metal-linked stocks nosedived after a tailspin in gold prices.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended down by 1,092.61 points or 3.31% at 31,923.52.

Profit taking, and the dollar's rise following the announcement by U.S. President Donald Trump that Kevin Warsh will be his nominee for the post of Federal Reserve Chair hurt precious metals.

Asian stocks followed Wall Street lower on Monday as lingering trade tensions along with renewed uncertainty over U.S. monetary policy and ongoing heavy selling in the precious metals space spurred risk aversion.

Investors also looked ahead to the release of key U.S. jobs data as well as central bank decisions in Australia, Europe and London for direction.

After a slightly weak start, the major European markets are up firmly in positive territory today with strong regional manufacturing data aiding sentiment.

The U.K.'s FTSE 100, Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 are up 0.65%, 0.75% and 0.6%, respectively. The pan European Stoxx 600 is gaining about 0.5%.