Wall Street futures are down Monday, following last night’s TV speech in which U.S. President George Bush said another US$87 billion is required to rebuild Iraq and curb attacks on American soldiers. With the ballooning U.S. deficit and a weak employment market this news isn’t getting a positive reception from equity markets.

In Asia, the major markets finished mixed overnight. Tokyo’s Nikkei stock average gained 32.99 points to 10,683.76, boosted by technology and banking stocks.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slipped 5.33 points to 11,165.28, due to profit-taking.

In Europe at midday, London’s FTSE 100 index is up slightly, 0.5%, gaining 22.7 points to 4,279.9. Frankfurt is up 0.7%, while Paris has edged up 0.3%.

Investors in Canada got some good news this morning. Statistics Canada reported Monday that municipalities issued building permits permits worth $4.53 billion, up 3.3% from June and just shy of the monthly record of $4.59 billion in January.

The torrid pace of permits set a new record for the first seven months of the year. Permits for housing in July hit $2.78 billion, up 4.7% from June and just short of the monthly record of $2.80 billion set in January. The value of non-residential permits grew 1.1% to $1.8 billion, its highest level since January. The major factor was a 56.7% leap in industrial permits.

Fuelled by very low mortgage rates, a favourable job market and income growth, said StatsCan, these gains will likely keep the building sector humming for months. According to July’s Labour Force Survey, more than 933,000 Canadians were employed in construction, up 1.1% from the previous month and 5.4% higher than for the same month last year.

There will be one U.S. economic release, a report on consumer debt, at 15:00 ET today. Economists expect it to show that Americans went about $5 billion deeper into debt in July. The plus side of that is the consumer spending which has been fueling the economic recovery.

Meanwhile, an ominous development has occurred into the investigation into the U.S. mutual fund industry. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, James Comey, has notified other regulators that he plans to join New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s investigation of alleged mutual-fund trading violations.

Comey’s added participation carries the threat of possible federal criminal prosecution in the case, which involves such big players such as Bank of America Corp. Last week, four mutual-fund companies were named in the complaint, although none were charged with wrongdoing: Bank of America’s asset-management unit, Janus Capital Group Inc., Bank One Corp. and Strong Capital Management Inc.

On Friday, the S&P/TSX composite index rose 17.65 points to close at 7,612.50, a 15-month high.

The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average fell 84.56 points to 9,503.34. The broader S&P 500 index fell 6.6 points to 1,021.37. The tech heavy Nasdaq composite index slipped10.85 points at 1,858.12.