Toronto's main stock index looked set to open lower on Monday, as investors remained cautious ahead of the start of U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's two-day congressional testimony, which starts on Tuesday.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index advanced 89.06 points Friday to end a turbulent week at 11,514.53. Canada stock futures traded down 0.4% this morning.
The Canadian dollar traded lower Monday morning by 0.18 cents to 98.49 cents U.S.
Glencore International Plc has won a Canadian regulator's approval for its roughly $6.1-billion takeover of grain handler Viterra Inc.
Other stocks to watch this morning include Excellon Resources Inc., which said mining at its La Platosa silver mine in Mexico continued to remain suspended and it might run out of stockpiled material at its mill in a few days.
A northern California jury directed Research In Motion Ltd. to pay $147.2 million U.S. in patent litigation over a remote management system for wireless devices, according to an attorney for the plaintiff, Mformation Technologies Inc.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange took on 17.77 points Friday to 1,186.96. The Nasdaq Canada index improved 3.73 points to 345.13.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks were also pointing to a lower open Monday as Citigroup's second-quarter results kicked off a week chock full of corporate quarterly data.
Futures for the Dow Jones deducted 44 points, or 0.4%, to 12,668, about 30 minutes before the opening bell. Futures for the S&P 500 fell 4.5 points, or 0.3%, to 1,347.20, and for the Nasdaq, futures subsided 6.75 points, or 0.3%, to 2,570.
Citigroup outperformed expectations in the second quarter, reporting earnings per share of 95 cents U.S. Its quarterly revenue of $18.6 billion U.S. was 10% lower than the same quarter last year.
Citi follows earnings from JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, which both reported Friday.
Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Johnson & Johnson and a slew of tech firms, including Yahoo, Google, Intel and Microsoft will all be reporting this week.
The U.S. government will also release data on retail sales and business inventories later Monday.
Worries about a slowdown in China were heightened over the weekend when Chinese Prime Minister Web Jiabao said his country's economic troubles will continue.
And anxiety remains over the European debt crisis. Investors are concerned that political headwinds in Europe will stymie the latest rescue plan for the euro currency union, which euro-zone leaders announced at a summit meeting late last month.
European stocks fell in afternoon trading. Britain's FTSE 100 and the DAX in Germany slipped were flat, while France's CAC 40 lost 0.2%
Asian markets ended mixed. The Shanghai Composite fell 1.7%, while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong ticked up about 0.2%. Japanese markets were closed for a holiday.
Oil for August delivery fell 38 cents to $86.72 U.S. a barrel.
Gold futures for August delivery fell $8.70 to $1,583.30 U.S. an ounce.
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