The Toronto stock market appeared set for a slightly higher open while commodity prices declined and traders looked ahead to the latest reading on American retail sales.
In corporate news, energy company Nexen Inc. has received regulatory approvals clearing the way for an expansion at its oil sands operation in northern Alberta. The latest approvals are for two more extraction pads at the Long Lake operation, which has experienced numerous delays due to technical issues.
CAE Inc.’s military division won more than $950 million worth of orders in its 2012 financial year including nearly half in its latest quarter, putting the training simulator company on track to beat last year’s sales. Among the orders was $170 million of training and services contracts from Brunei, announced Monday.
The TSX lost ground for a sixth, straight week last week, losing 0.5%, leaving the main index up about 100 points or 0.7% for the year to date on worries about a slowing global economy, falling corporate profits and rising risk from the European debt crisis
ON BAYSTREET
The S&P/TSX Composite Index stumbled 174.26 points, or 1.4%, to end Friday at 12,040.39
The TSX Venture Exchange slid 12.57 points to 1,459.93, while the Nasdaq Canada index weakened 5.83 points to 403.18
The Canadian dollar was off 0.15 of a cent to 99.92 cents U.S., below parity with its American neighbour.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. index futures were higher with about 45 minutes before markets open, suggesting that stocks will rise at the start of trading. Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average were up 37 points, or 0.3%, to 12,825.
Futures for the broader S&P 500 were up 1.5 points, or 0.1%, to 1,366.50. Both indexes slumped last week, recording their worst one-week declines of the year amid weaker U.S. economic news and a flare-up of the European debt crisis.
Futures for the tech-rich Nasdaq inched up 7.5 points, or 0.3%, to 2,701
Those concerns remained at the start of the week. In Spain, government 10-year bond yields broke above the 6% threshold and the cost of protecting investors against default rose to a record high. Some observers are concerned that Spain is the next country to dominate headlines related to the crisis, as the government struggles to bring down its deficit.
In European trading, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was up 0.7% and Germany's DAX index was up 0.8% in afternoon trading. In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 1.7% in overnight trading.
Meanwhile, commodities trended lower. Crude oil fell to $102.44 U.S. a barrel, down 0.4%. Gold fell to $1,649 U.S. an ounce, down 0.7%.
