Global markets were mixed in cautious trading as investors assessed a range of corporate results and concerns over AI valuations persisted.

Wall Street futures were muted, with Nasdaq pointing lower, as markets weighed Alphabet’s blowout spending plans against stellar quarterly results.

TSX futures edged down as commodity prices declined.

In Canada, investors are getting results from Thomson Reuters Corp., Barrick Mining Corp., BCE Inc., Lightspeed Commerce Inc., Canada Goose Holdings Inc., Saputo Inc., Rogers Sugar Inc. and TMX Group Ltd.

On Wall Street, markets are watching earnings from Amazon.com Inc., Shell PLC, ConocoPhillips, KKR & Co. Inc., ArcelorMittal, Open Text Corp. and News Corp.

“At the end of the day, investors have the last word. If they want their Big Tech darlings to slow spending – and they express that feeling by sending stock prices into a freefall – spending will have to slow," Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote, wrote in a note.

“My guess is that if these earnings – and improved analyst expectations – can’t lift sentiment, it will be hard to prevent a broader selloff."

Overseas, the pan-European STOXX 600 was down 0.39 per cent in morning trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 retreated 0.35 per cent, Germany’s DAX slid 0.2 per cent and France’s CAC 40 rose 0.24 per cent.

In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei closed 0.88 per cent lower, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng climbed 0.14 per cent.

 Oil prices fell but held close to multi-month ‍highs after the U.S. and Iran agreed to hold talks in Oman tomorrow.

Brent crude futures ‍dropped ​1.2 per cent to US$68.60 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude prices declined 1.32 per cent to trade at US$64.32.

Oil prices are strongly influenced by tensions in the Middle East, with markets closely watching the talks in Oman, said UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo.

In other commodities, spot gold declined 2 per cent to US$4,864.361 an ounce. U.S. gold futures for April delivery dropped 1.3 per cent to US$4,855.80 an ounce.

The Canadian dollar weakened against its U.S. counterpart.

The day range on the loonie was 72.97 US cents to 73.21 US cents in early trading. The Canadian dollar was up about 1.27 per cent against the greenback over the past month.

The U.S. dollar index, which weighs the greenback against a group of currencies, rose 0.2 per cent to 97.82.

The euro slid 0.16 per cent to US$1.1790. The British pound fell 0.48 per cent to US$1.3589.

In bonds, the yield on the U.S. 10-year note was last up at 4.283 per cent.

Euro area retail sales and Germany factory orders

Bank of England monetary policy meeting

8:30 a.m. ET: initial jobless claims for previous week

10 a.m. ET: Global supply chain pressure index

11″30 a.m. ET: Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem speaks in Toronto

With Reuters and The Canadian Press