Jan 12 (Reuters) - Futures for Canada's main commodity-heavy stock index drifted higher on Friday, tracking rising crude prices, while investors assessed earnings from major banks in the United States.
March futures on the S&P/TSX index were up 0.2% at 7:06 a.m. ET (1206 GMT), while their Wall Street peers were in the red.
Crude prices leaped 4% on Friday, as oil tankers diverted course from the Red Sea following overnight air and sea strikes by the United States and Britain on Houthi targets in Yemen after attacks on shipping by the Iran-backed group.
The conflict also lifted the appeal of gold as a safe haven, with prices ticking upwards, though a firmer dollar weighed down copper prices.
Investors also assessed a mixed set of quarterly results reports from U.S. banking giants, with JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N) and Bank of America (BAC.N) posting lower profits, while Wells Fargo's (WFC.N) earnings jumped.
The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index (.GSPTSE) ended lower on Thursday, after hotter-than-expected U.S. inflation data added to uncertainty around when the Federal Reserve would begin cutting interest rates.
The index has pulled away from a 20-month high earlier this week, but outperformance in technology stocks has helped cap losses.
Investors will look for key Canadian inflation data in the upcoming week for clues about when the Bank of Canada will start cutting borrowing costs.
Meanwhile, brokerage Canaccord Genuity downgraded Canadian metals miner Lundin Mining Corp (LUN.TO) to "hold" from "buy."
Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO) appointed Royal Bank of Canada's (RBC) (RY.TO) Carrie Cook as global head of investment and corporate banking.
COMMODITIES AT 7:06 a.m. ET
Gold futures : $2,050.3; +1.5%
US crude : $74.92; +4.0%
Brent crude : $80.39; +3.9%
Reporting by Purvi Agarwal and Amruta Khandekar in Bengaluru; Editing by Ravi Prakash Kumar
