Toronto's resource-heavy main stock index looked set to open lower on Tuesday, hurt by soft commodity prices, with investors cautious after recent gains and some mixed economic data.
Meanwhile, investors will be keeping an eye on Royal Bank of Canada after a U.S. regulator sued the bank for making what it sees as illegal futures trades. RBC has denied the charges. The bank has also decided to buy the 50% of Dexia that it doesn't already own, for $1.1 billion.
Elsewhere, Lake Shore Gold Corp. said an accident at its Timmins West mine in Ontario resulted in the death of one of its employees.
ON BAYSTREET
The S&P/TSX Composite Index grew by 114.88 points to end Monday at 12,507.06
The TSX Venture Exchange poked ahead 3.40 points to 1,569.79, while the Nasdaq Canada index slid 2.45 points to 418.12
The Canadian dollar lost 0.05 cents this morning to 100.90 cents U.S.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. index futures were down with about half an hour before markets open, suggesting that stocks will fall at the start of trading. Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average were down 39 points or 0.3% to 13,150. Futures for the broader S&P 500 were down 3.7 points or 0.3% to 1,408.90, while futures for the tech-rich Nasdaq were unchanged at 2,777.
In Europe, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 and Germany's DAX index were down about 0.2% each in afternoon trading. In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 0.6% in overnight trading.
Some of the old concerns continue to weigh on sentiment. China's central governor warned that the world still faces the threat of a global recession and has not escaped the financial crisis that dragged the world down in 2008. Meanwhile Spanish and Italian bond yields moved higher, reflecting concerns with Spain's latest budget that is supposed to tackle the country's debt.
Among commodities, crude oil fell 0.6%, to $104.57 U.S. a barrel. Gold was down 0.3% to $1,675.20 U.S.
