U.S. stock-market futures moved higher Monday as crude-oil prices retreated and Wall Street investment firm Lehman Brothers warned of a second quarter loss.

Crude futures, after surging to a record high just below US$140 a barrel on Friday, were giving back some gains. By midday in Europe, light, sweet crude for July delivery was down US$1.21 to US$137.33 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

On the today’s economic calendar, U.S. pending home sales for April are set for release at 10:00 ET.

Here at home, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts was 221,300 units in May, up from 213,900 units in April.

The Canadian dollar opened at US98.07¢, off 0.04 cent from Friday.

In today’s earnings news, Lehman Brothers said it expects to swing to a second-quarter net loss of about US$2.8 billion compared with a net income of US$1.3 billion a year earlier due to challenging market conditions. Lehman also plans to raise US$6 billion in fresh capital.

Texas Instruments Inc. will provide its mid-quarter update for the second quarter later today.

In M&A news, QLT Inc. has sold its worldwide rights to acne gel Aczone to Allergan Inc. for US$150 million.

CAE Inc. has acquired the Sabena Flight Academy, a 135-employee pilot training provider with a six-simular simulator centre in Brussels and a 40-plane flight school in Arizona, for an undisclosed amount of cash.

Overseas, European shares were flat, with banks losing new ground and with high crude prices pressuring airlines while helping oil companies. The German DAX fell 0.1% to 6,798.49, the French CAC-40 was flat at 4,795.12 and the UK’s FTSE rose 0.1% to 5,914.50.

Asian stock markets closed sharply lower, as lofty crude-oil prices raised fresh concerns about the global economic outlook and put markets on a risk-averse footing. Japan’s Nikkei 225 lost 2.1% to 14,181.38.

Toronto stocks gave up early gains to end lower Friday, after worries about the U.S. and Canadian economies offset advances from surging oil prices.

The S&P/TSX composite index slipped 13.36 points, or 0.09%, to 14,969.55.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index added 24.72 points, or 0.93%, to 2,681.35.

In New York, U.S. stocks plunged after government data showed the unemployment rate jumped the most in 22 years in May and the price of oil surged.

The Dow Jones industrial average plunged 394.64 points, or 3.13%, to 12,209.81.

The S&P 500 fell 43.37 points, or 3.09%, to 1,360.68.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index dropped 75.38 points, or 2.96%, to 2,474.56.

For the week, the Dow dropped 3.5%, the S&P 500 fell 2.6% and the Nasdaq shed 1.9%.