U.S. stock futures moved sharply lower on Monday after a discouraging report on New York-area manufacturing and a decline in commodities prices.

The U.S. Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Empire State Manufacturing Survey declined to -9.41 from -4.55 in May as new orders remained weak and a gauge of shipments declined sharply. More than half of the survey’s respondents said that they had pared capital spending this year.

The New York-area data are seen as an important precursor to U.S. national reports.

Here at home, manufacturing sales edged down 0.1% to $41 billion in April, Statistics Canada said Monday. Sizeable gains in the transportation equipment industry were offset by weakness in other industries.

Separately, StatsCan said the number of new motor vehicles sold remained essentially unchanged in April at 121,290 units, following a strong increase in March.

The Canadian dollar fell sharply against its U.S. counterpart. In morning trade, the loonie was at US88.32¢, down from Friday’s finish at US89.45¢.

In commodities news, crude-oil futures declined 48¢ to $71.55 a barrel in recent trading, as the U.S. greenback strengthened.

Gold prices fell below US$940 an ounce.

In today’s M&A news, Sun Life Financial Inc. said it is acquiring the UK operations of Lincoln National Corp. for $359 million (US$317 million).

In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 ended 1% lower at 10,039.67, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index down 2.1%.

In Europe, London’s FTSE 100 Index was off 1.8% to 4,358.32, Frankfurt’s DAX fell 2% to 4,965.38, and the CAC-40 Index in Paris was down 1.9% at 3,262.24.

On Friday, falling commodity prices sent the Toronto Stock Exchange lower, but the benchmark index still managed to pull off a fourth consecutive week of gains.

The S&P/TSX composite index fell 69.15 points, or 0.6%, to close at 10,644.96. For the week, the index advanced about 0.7%.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture index finished in positive territory on Friday, adding 6.49 points, or 0.6%, to close at 1,154.81.

The Canadian dollar tumbled more than a cent on Friday, to close at US89.45¢.

In New York, U.S. markets finished mainly flat on Friday, failing to get a boost from data showing that U.S. consumer confidence climbed slightly higher in June.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 28.34 points, or 0.3%, to 8,799.26. For the week, the blue-chip average edged up 0.4%.

The S&P 500 index added 1.32 points, a gain of 0.1%, to stand at 946.21, up 0.7% from its week-ago close.

The Nasdaq composite index fell 3.57 points, or 0.2%, to finish at 1,858.80. It finished down 0.5% for the week.

IE