The S&P/TSX Composite index was set for a lower open on Tuesday, as worries about Greece's ability to secure a bailout in time to avoid a messy default weighed on sentiment.
The Canadian dollar dipped 0.16 to 100.26 cents U.S.
Canadian stocks to watch this morning include Centerra Gold. Around 1,400 workers at the company's flagship mine in Kyrgyzstan went on strike, a trade union leader said, halting production that contributes nearly 12% of GDP in the Central Asian republic.
Bank of Montreal says it will gain ground against foreign rivals to capture 10% of Canada's exchange traded fund market in 2012 as domestic rivals try to decide whether it is too late to enter the burgeoning ETF space, the bank's head of asset management said in an interview.
Global stocks fell slightly on Tuesday morning, with Greece still unable to reach an agreement over austerity measures and Germany reporting that industrial output in December fell the most since 2009, raising more concerns about a European recession.
U.S. index futures were down with less than 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 five points to 12,721. Futures for the broader S&P 500 were down 3.20 points, 0.2%, to 1,335.90, and for the Nasdaq, down 5.5 points, or 0.2%, to 2,520.25.
All three indexes broke a recent winning streak on Monday, falling ever-so-slightly as Greece remained mired in debate over austerity measures that the euro zone is imposing on the indebted nation as a condition to more bailout funds.
That debate continued on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the backdrop in Europe looks increasingly troubled: Germany's industrial output fell 2.9% in December over November, a far worse result than economists had been predicting.
The big event of the day in the United States will surely be Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke's testimony at 10 a.m. ET before the Senate Budget Committee.
In Europe, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was down 0.6% and Germany's DAX index was down 1.1% in afternoon trading.
In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index each fell 0.1% in overnight trading, while Shanghai slid 1.9%.
Commodities were also lower, with crude oil down 1.1%, trading below $96 U.S. a barrel. Gold fell 0.6%, to about $1,714 U.S. an ounce.
