Toronto's main stock index opened 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 declined 30.11 points, to begin the week at 11,484.42.
The Canadian dollar traded lower by 0.24 cents to 98.43 cents U.S.
In the news, 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.
In economic matters, Statistics Canada revealed this morning that foreigners bought up a record $26.1 billion of Canadian securities in May, most of them government debt securities. Canadian investors made $1.3 billion purchase of foreign securities in the month, following a divestment in April.
Moreover, national resale housing activity dipped 1.3% last month over July, according to statistics released today by The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA). Actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity stood 4.4% below levels in June 2011, marking the first year-over-year decline since April 2011.
CREA also said the number of newly listed homes climbed 1.4% from May to June. Price gains remained strong in Toronto, continued slowing in Greater Vancouver, and picked up in Calgary.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange gave back 4.99 points to 1,181.97. The Nasdaq Canada index slid 3.37 points to 341.76.
All but two of the 14 Toronto subgroups were down to begin the day. Metals and mining stocks dipped 1.6%, global base metals fell 1.1% and information technology demurred 0.9%.
The two gainers proved to be real-estate, up 0.6%, and industrials, inching forward 0.2%.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stocks opened lower Monday as investors digested a surprise drop in June retail sales and remained cautious at the start of a week chock full of corporate quarterly data.
The Dow Jones Industrials jettisoned 75.35 points to begin the session at 12,701.40
The S&P 500 subtracted 7.44 points to 1,349.34. The Nasdaq Composite Index reversed 18.50 points to 2,989.97.
Meanwhile, investors also kept a close eye on news from the corporate front, with earnings reports out in full swing this week. Citigroup kicked off the busy week by topping analysts' forecasts, even as its quarterly revenue declined 10% from a year ago and fell short of estimates.
Citi's earnings follows results 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.
Shares of biopharmaceutical company Human Genome Sciences rose, as rival GlaxoSmithKlein is expected to announce that it's raising its buyout offer by a buck a share to $14 U.S., according to news reports.
Nokia shares fell after the cell phone maker said it would slash the price of its flagship smartphone in the United States.
The cost of the Lumia 900 will drop to $49.99 U.S., as the company struggles to gain ground against the more popular Apple and Samsung.
Shares of Visa and MasterCard advanced, following an announcement late Friday that the credit card companies had settled a massive antitrust case with merchants.
Economically speaking, retail sales for June came in weak, dropping 0.5% from the previous month and bucking economists' expectations for a 0.2% increase. Nearly every sector took a hit, from furniture and electronics shops to gas stations and sporting goods stores.
Elsewhere, the Empire Manufacturing survey for New York State rose to 7.4 in July, from 2.3 the prior month. Economists were expecting a reading of 3.8.
Later this morning, the Census Bureau will release data on business inventories for May, which are expected to have risen by 0.2% from April.
The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury jumped, pushing the yield down to 1.45% from Friday’s 1.50%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil for August delivery gained 12 cents to $87.22 U.S. a barrel.
Gold futures for August delivery fell $1.20 to $1,592 U.S. an ounce.
