Wall Street stock futures pointed to a higher open Monday to start a holiday-shortened week.

Canadian markets will be closed Wednesday for Canada Day and U.S. markets will be closed Friday for the Independence Day holiday.

Convicted Ponzi-scheme operator Bernard Madoff will learn Monday morning whether he’ll spend the rest of his life behind bars for running a decades-long swindle that bilked thousands of investors out of billions of dollars.

Madoff, who admitted in March to orchestrating one of the largest and longest white-collar frauds in recent memory, is set to be sentenced at a hearing in Manhattan at 10:00 ET Monday.

In corporate news, Tim Hortons Inc. filed an application with U.S. regulators on Monday to reorganize as a Canadian company and warned that the move could affect its results for the remainder of the year.

In commodities news, oil prices edged higher, with the August-dated light-crude contract adding 12¢ to $69.28 a barrel.

The Canadian dollar was up 0.14 of a cent to US86.78¢.

In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 Average reversed gains early in the session to end 1% lower at 9,783.47. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index ended down 0.4%

In Europe, the UK’s FTSE 100 added 0.6% to 4,265.25, Frankfurt’s DAX gained 0.8% to 4,812.54 and the CAC-40 index in Paris was 0.7% higher at 3,152.52.

On Friday, The Toronto Stock Exchange recovered from early-day losses to finish with modest gains, boosted by strong performance in bank stocks.

The S&P/TSX composite index gained 33.91 points, or 0.3%, to close at 10,389.76. For the week, the benchmark index gained 1%.
Junior stocks also finished higher on Friday, sending the S&P/TSX Venture composite index up 8.54 points, or 0.8%, to close at 1,111.59.

In New York, U.S. stocks finished with mixed results after the Commerce Department reported monthly increases in personal spending and incomes in May, and a surge in household savings.

The main stock market indexes finished mostly lower for the week.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 34.01 points, or 0.4%, to 8,438.39, leaving it down 1.2% for the week.

The S&P 500 shed 1.36 points, or 0.2%, to 918.90, off 0.3% from the week-ago close.

The Nasdaq composite index gained 8.68 points, or 0.5%, to 1,838.22, leaving the index up 0.6% for the week.

IE