Wall Street stock futures pointed to a lower open Monday, as investors braced for a flood of second-quarter earnings reports and key U.S. economic data later this week.

Here at home, hundreds of union workers at Vale Inco’s nickel operations in Sudbury are on strike, with picket lines set up early Monday.

The Canadian dollar rose to US85.95¢, up from US85.86¢ at Friday’s close.

In today’s earnings news, Philips Electronics surprised the market with a second-quarter net profit. The Dutch company said second-quarter earnings before interest, taxes and amortization (EBITA) were 118 million euros (US$164.4 million). The company posted a loss in the first quarter.

In commodities news, oil futures fell 11¢ to US$59.78 a barrel.

In Asia, stocks nursed heavy losses. The Japanese Nikkei 225 stock average tumbled 236.95 points, or 2.6%, to 9,050.33.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 453.79, or 2.6%, to 17254.63,

In Europe, the UK’s FTSE was up 0.1%, Germany’s DAX gaining 0.2% and France’s CAC 40 flat. Wall Street futures pointed to more losses on Monday. Dow futures were down 30, or 0.4%, at 8,055 and S&P futures fell 3.1, or 0.4%, at 871.20.


The Toronto Stock Exchange suffered more losses on Friday, bringing the weekly drop for the benchmark index to 5%, while oil futures finished with a hefty weekly loss of more than 10%.

The S&P/TSX composite index shed 26.79 points, or 0.3%, to 9,747.13. The decline was despite an employment report from Statistics Canada on Friday morning showing that job losses in June were milder than expected.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index edged up 2.73 points, or 0.3%, to 1,045.55.

The Canadian dollar declined by almost one-fifth of a cent against the greenback, to close at US85.86¢.

Stocks in New York also finished lower. The Dow Jones industrial average and the S&P 500 index each finished with a fourth consecutive weekly loss.

The Dow fell 36.65 points, or 0.5%, to end at 8,146.52, leaving it with a weekly decline of 1.6%.

The S&P 500 shed 3.55 points, or 0.4%, to 879.13, off 1.9% from the week-ago close.

The Nasdaq composite index edged up 3.48 points, or 0.2%, to 1,756.03 on Friday. But the technology-laden index still finished the week with a hefty decline of 2.3%.

IE