Stock futures pointed to a lower opening for equities in Toronto on Tuesday ahead of monthly reading on economic growth for January.
The S&P/TSX composite index was positive 95.77 points to end Monday at 14,908.39, with June futures down 0.3% Tuesday.
The Canadian dollar dropped 0.56 cents to 78.32 cents U.S. early Monday.
Fairfax Financial Holdings has sold half of its 5.8% stake in Bank of Ireland for more than triple what it paid for it in 2011, a source with knowledge of the deal said.
Teck Resources Ltd and Antofagasta Plc denied on Monday that they were in talks about a merger after Bloomberg news reported that the two mining companies were in early stage talks.
Financial technology firm D+H said on Monday it agreed to acquire global payment services provider Fundtech for $1.25 billion in cash, in a bid to expand its service offerings aimed at global financial institutions and large U.S. banks.
BMO raised the rating on Belo Sun Mining Corp to outperform from market perform.
CIBC cut the rating on Catamaran to sector perform from outperform.
Bernstein raised the target price on Thomson Reuters to $53.00 from $46.00, with a market perform rating.
In the economic docket, Statistics Canada reported that Gross Domestic Product in this country was down 0.1% in January, after increasing 0.3% in December and declining 0.2% in November.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange dropped 1.10 points Monday to 680.33
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stock futures are looking a bit soft Tuesday after markets posted a strong rally on Monday.
Ahead of the opening bell, futures for the Dow Jones Industrials retreated 92 points, or 0.5%, to 17,768. Futures for the S&P 500 lost 11.5 points, or 0.6%, to 2,064, and futures for the NASDAQ fell 21.5 points, or 0.5%, to 4,351.
As it stands now, both the Dow and S&P 500 have declined by nearly 1% since the start of March, following a surge in February. The NASDAQ is also in the red for the month, but is only off by 0.3%.
The S&P/Case Shiller 20-city home price index will be published at 9 a.m. This index provides a broad overview about the state of America's housing market.
The U.S. Conference Board will update its monthly consumer confidence index at 10 a.m.
Traders are focusing on the oil market Tuesday in anticipation of major developments involving Iran and Nigeria.
Iran is negotiating with world powers about its nuclear capabilities, and talks are coming down to the wire. Tuesday at 6 p.m. ET marks the "self-imposed" deadline for all sides to agree on a general framework for a deal.
Then the U.S., Iran and others will have until the end of June to hammer out the specifics. This could ultimately lead to a lifting of sanctions and allow Iran to pump more oil to world markets.
Nigeria, one of Africa's biggest oil producers, is tallying up the results of its election. Final results are expected today.
European markets are mostly edging higher in early trading.
All the main Asian markets closed the day with gains, except for the Nikkei in Japan, which pulled back by 1.1%.
Oil prices dropped $1.12 to $47.56 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices lost 60 cents to $1,184.70 U.S. an ounce.
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