Canadian stocks were set to open lower on Tuesday.
The S&P/TSX composite index picked up 18.48 to close Monday at 14,797.83, with March futures off 0.3% Tuesday.
The Canadian dollar hiked 0.11 cents to 80.28 cents U.S. early Tuesday.
Canadian grocer Metro Inc reported a 13% jump in quarterly profit as same-store sales rose 3.8%, the highest increase since the third quarter of 2009.
Democrats in the U.S. Senate blocked the Keystone XL pipeline bill from moving forward on Monday, but supporters of the project vowed to push ahead and eventually get a vote on the measure.
CIBC raised the rating on ARC Resources to outperform from sector perform.
Canaccord Genuity raised the rating on Fortuna Silver to buy from hold
Moreover, Canaccord Genuity raised the rating on Eldorado Gold to hold from sell.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange shed 3.79 points Monday to 674.39
ON WALLSTREET
Investors were urged to brace themselves for a snowy blizzard and a blizzard of earnings to hit Wall Street on Tuesday.
Ahead of the opening bell, futures for the Dow Jones Industrials plummeted 223 points, or 1.3%, to 17,391. Futures for the S&P 500 dipped 19.5 points, or 1%, to 2,034, and futures for the NASDAQ decreased 50.5 points, or 1.2%, to 4,269.25.
Shares in Microsoft and Caterpillar are both declining more than 7% after releasing their latest earnings.
Microsoft reported a drop in quarterly profit, largely due to the ongoing restructuring of the company. But sales are growing for just about every product Microsoft makes, except for Windows.
Procter & Gamble, American Airlines, Pfizer and Lockheed Martin will also report quarterly earnings before the opening bell.
Apple, Yahoo, and AT&T will report after the close.
Natural gas futures are bouncing by about 3% in New York. Traders appear to be expecting a surge in heating demand because of the cold weather slamming the northeastern United States.
Most European markets are down in afternoon trading, with some major indexes off by more than 1%.
However, the Swiss stock exchange is up by about 1%. Swiss markets are clawing back some of the losses endured earlier this month after the central bank allowed the currency to float freely instead of being pegged to the euro.
Oil prices fell five cents to $45.10 U.S. a barrel
Gold prices took on three dollars to $1,282.40 U.S. an ounce.
