U.S. stock futures were mixed early Monday after Citigroup forecast a steep decline in third-quarter profit.

U.S. banking giant Citigroup estimated its earnings will decline 60¢ from a year ago due to turmoil in the mortgage-backed securities and credit markets

Earlier Monday, UBS, the largest Swiss bank, warned it would post a pretax loss of up to US$690 million in the third quarter, due mainly to writedowns related to deteriorating conditions in the U.S. subprime mortgage market. The bank said the loss will result in the elimination of 1,500 jobs from the bank’s workforce of 80,000 by year-end.

Other firms due to report financial results Monday, include Walgreens and Palm.

There are no major economic releases from Statistics Canada today.

The Canadian dollar opened at US$1.0047, down 0.05 of a cent.

South of the border, the latest reading of the Institute for Supply Management’s U.S. manufacturing index is due at 10:00 ET. Economists forecast the reading to edge up to 53.0 in September from 52.9 in August.

Oil prices slipped in electronic pre-opening trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while gold prices rose. A barrel of light sweet crude fell 27¢ to US$81.39. An ounce of gold added $2 to US$752 an ounce.

Overseas, the UK’s FTSE 100 was up 0.49%, Germany’s DAX index rose 0.17% and France’s CAC-40 rose 0.09%.

In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei stock average closed up 0.36% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 0.29%.

Toronto stocks closed lower on Friday, snapping a five-day winning streak, as investors moved to lock in profits.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 30.84 points, or 0.2%, at 14,098.89. For the week, the benchmark index climbed 1.1%.

The index gained 1.4% in the third quarter, despite credit market turmoil in August.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture exchange bucked the profit-taking trend, climbing 51.31 points, or 1.81%, to 2,883.56.

In New York, stocks dipped as money managers locked in profits on the last trading day of a strong September,

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 17.31 points, or 0.12%, to end at 13,895.63. The S&P 500 declined 4.63 points, or 0.30%, to 1,526.75. The Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 8.09 points, or 0.30%, to 2,701.50.

For the week, the Dow gained 0.6%, the S&P inched up 0.1% and Nasdaq climbed 1.1%.

For the month, the Dow rose 4%, the S&P 500 gained 3.6% and the Nasdaq gained 4.1%.

For the third quarter, the Dow was up 3.6%, the S&P was up 1.6% and the Nasdaq was up 3.8%.