Mixed global indicators suggest a weak start to today’s markets, following yesterday’s strong close.

The Canadian dollar opened at 96.02 cents U.S., up 0.03 of a cent.

Wall Street stock futures were lower this morning, with record oil prices and a weak U.S. dollar. Early this morning, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures dropped 41 to 13,280. S&P 500 futures lost 5.3 to 1,467.5. Nasdaq 100 futures were down 9 to 1984.5.

Crude oil futures were up eight cents, to US$78.31 a barrel early today. Yesterday oil hit a record $78.23.

In early trading the London FTSE 100 lost 0.64% and Germany’s DAX index lost 0.37%. These losses were barely offset by a slight gain of 0.02% by France’s CAC-40.

In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index gained 1.49%. Japan’s Nikkei stock average was down half a percentage point amid political uncertainty brought on by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s announcement that he will resign.

Today’s opening follows a strong close yesterday, as resource stocks led a rally. The S&P/TSX index rose 78.79, or 0.58%, to 13,704.28.

Eight of the 10 TSX main sub-groups were up.

The energy index gained 0.68%.

In New York, markets surged yesterday as investors cheered strong corporate earnings news and expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve would cut interest rates next week.