Canadian stocks looked set to open lower on Monday with soft Chinese manufacturing data and simmering tensions in Ukraine weighing on investor sentiment.
The S&P/TSX composite index climbed 101.08 points to end Friday at 14,765.15. June futures were down 0.1% early Monday.
The Canadian dollar inched lower 0.03 cents to 91.04 cents U.S. early Monday.
Michigan state prosecutors plan to call a former Encana Corp executive to testify on behalf of the state, at a hearing in their criminal antitrust case against oil and gas companies Chesapeake Energy Corp and Encana Corp that begins Monday.
Regulators on Friday gave Augusta Resources Corp more time to find a white knight, ruling that the miner's shareholder rights plan could stay in place until at least July 15 despite a challenge by hostile bidder Hudbay Minerals Inc.
CIBC cut the rating on SNC-Lavalin Group to sector perform from sector outperform
RBC raised the target price on Canadian Tire to $126 from $120, maintaining a rating of outperform
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange moved higher 7.90 points Friday to 1,014.42
ON WALLSTREET
There's a hush in the markets Monday morning as earnings season wraps up and investors weigh various economic risks.
Ahead of the opening bell, futures for the Dow Jones Industrials dropped 60 points, or 0.4%, to 16,387. Futures for the S&P 500 fell 7.2 points, or 0.4%, at 1,867.20, and futures for the NASDAQ slid 16.25 points, or 0.5%, to 3,563.
Earnings season is winding down, but a few more quarterly releases remain on the docket. Pfizer and Tyson Foods will report before the opening bell. Pfizer may reveal further information about its plans to acquire the British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.
After the closing bell, gun manufacturer Sturm Ruger will report its latest quarterly figures.
Berkshire Hathaway hosted its annual shareholder meeting over the weekend. The company reported earnings Friday that missed expectations.
Worries over growing tensions and lawlessness in Ukraine may be causing investors some unease.
Meanwhile, a new HSBC manufacturing report out of China on Monday showed business conditions continued to deteriorate in April, dampening investor sentiment in Asia.
European markets were lower in morning trading. Germany's Dax index was down by just over 1%.
Asian markets ended the day with mixed results. Some international markets were closed Monday, including exchanges in London, Seoul and Tokyo
Oil prices gained 23 cents to $99.99 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices zoomed $9.10 to $1,312 U.S. an ounce.
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