Source: The Canadian Press

The Toronto stock market appeared heading for a weak opening as commodity prices continued to back off in the wake of doubts about the strength of an economic rebound following Friday’s disappointing U.S. jobs report.

However, U.S. futures pointed to a slightly higher session with the Dow Jones industrial futures up three points to 9,949, the Nasdaq futures gained 4.75 points to 1,839 while the S&P 500 futures climbed 1.4 points to 1,067.5.

Worries that the European debt crisis could weaken demand helped push the July crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange down 31 cents to US$71.20 a barrel.

Bullion prices also headed lower with the August gold contract on the Nymex down $2.80 to US$1,214.90 an ounce while the July copper contract in New York declined four cents to US$2.78 a pound.

Stock markets sold off on Friday following the U.S. Labour Department’s monthly employment report that showed a lack of hiring by private employers in May. Overall job creation came in at 430,000, about 100,000 short of expectations. Private sector employment totalled only 41,000.

The jobs report, coupled with a comment from the Hungarian government that its economy was in a “grave situation,” pushed the TSX down 242 points while the Dow industrials tumbled 324 points.

“Investors are fleeing riskier assets so they’re dumping stocks and oil,” said Victor Shum, an energy analyst at consultancy Purvin & Gertz in Singapore.

“The market may be overreacting a bit, but the jobs report shows that the U.S. economy is still struggling.”

Over the weekend, Hungary’s government backed off statements it made last week that it was facing a similar debt crisis to Greece.

But the euro continued to trade at a four-year low of about US$1.1954.

The Canadian dollar was up 0.01 of a cent to 94.28 cents US after European worries sent investors to the safe haven zone of U.S. Treasuries and pushed the loonie down about one and three quarters cents US on Friday.

Asian indexes closed sharply lower Monday in the wake of Friday’s American employment report. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 stock plunged 3.8%, South Korea’s Kospi lost 1.6%, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was down 2.8% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped two.

London’s FTSE 100 index declined 0.54%, the Frankfurt DAX lost 0.34% as government data showed that industrial orders in Germany — Europe’s biggest economy — were up 2.8% on the month in April following a strong rise in March. The Paris CAC 40 index was down 0.51%.

In corporate news, Chinese construction and engineering giant China Railway Engineering Corp. has become the strategic partner of Toronto-based Crystallex International Corp. (TSX:KRY). The company will lead efforts to unblock the environmental approval process for the stalled Las Cristinas gold mine in Venezuela, which is the junior Canadian mining company’s flagship project and chief asset. The Chinese company will also provide the necessary project capital to develop the project to commercial production.