Bay Street Likely To Open On Subdued Note

(RTTNews) - Canadian stocks are likely to open on a somewhat subdued note Tuesday morning with investors closely tracking news about potential U.S.-Iran peace talks.

The two-week Iran-U.S. ceasefire ends on Wednesday. According to reports, Pakistan is pressing ahead with the groundwork for a second round of talks between Iran and the United States in Islamabad as a fragile ceasefire hung in the balance, even though it remained unclear whether Tehran would send a delegation.

AtkinsRéalis Group Inc. (ATRL.TO) said it has signed a scheme implementation deed to acquire Wallbridge Gilbert Aztec or WGA, an engineering and project management consultancy based in Australia and New Zealand. The proposed acquisition would add WGA's 800 professionals and expand AtkinsRéalis' presence in Australian infrastructure and key end-markets such as Defence and Power & Renewables.

The Canadian market ended slightly up on Monday after the U.S. seizure of an Iranian vessel threatened the ongoing two-week ceasefire, triggering renewed war concerns in the gulf and driving crude oil supply disruption concerns.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index settled at 34,360.03, up by 13.74 points or 0.04%.

The two-week ceasefire, which U.S. President Donald Trump announced earlier this month, is set to lapse on April 22.

Asian stocks ended mostly higher on Tuesday, even as tensions between Washington and Tehran continued to simmer ahead of a potential ceasefire deadline.

European stocks are up in positive territory amid some hopes Iran and the U.S. will engage in a fresh round of peace talks in Pakistan this week.

In commodities trading, West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures are down $1.57 or 1.75% at $8804 a barrel.

Gold futures are down $16.60 or 0.34% at $4,812.20 an ounce, while Silver futures are down $0.868 or 1.1% at $79.170 an ounce.