U.S. stock futures dropped Tuesday morning after Home Depot released disappointing earnings. Meanwhile Canadian investors will get a chance to respond to weekend reports that that banks funding the $52 billion takeover of BCE Inc. want to revisit the deal.

Home-improvement retailer Home Depot said today reported that its profit dropped 66% as it continued to suffer amid economic conditions that have been discouraging homeowners from spending on home-improvement projects.

In today’s economic news, wholesalers reported a modest rebound in sales in March, helped by higher deliveries of building supplies and machinery and equipment, Statistics Canada reported today.

Sales increased by an estimated 0.6% to $42.7 billion, recouping some of the 2.1% decline reported in February.

Separately, StatsCan said foreign interest in Canadian securities continued to grow in March, led by purchases of new equities. Meanwhile, Canadians repatriated funds as they divested part of their foreign debt securities.

The Canadian dollar opened at US101.05¢, up 1.07 cents from Friday as oil prices continued probing new highs.

Light sweet crude was up 20¢ at US$127.25 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In other market news, a joint venture between Canadian Superior Energy Inc. of Calgary and privately held Global LNG Inc. of New York launched a plan Tuesday for a US$550-million liquefied natural gas import terminal 24 kilometres off New Jersey.

Overseas, Hong Kong’s key index fell 572.77 points, or 2.2%, to at 25,169.46 on worries over high oil prices and weakness in mainland markets.

Tokyo’s Nikkei index declined 0.8%, losing, 109.52 points to 14,160.09 as Japan’s central bank kept interest rates steady amid worries about a global slowdown.

he seven-member policy board of the Bank of Japan was unanimous in keeping the benchmark overnight call rate unchanged at 0.5% at the end of a two-day meeting.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index was down 1.4% early in the afternoon in London, while the German DAX declined 0.9% and the Paris CAC-40 lost 1.2%.

Canadian markets were closed Monday for the Victoria Day holiday.

After approaching 15,000 in morning trade, the Toronto Stock Exchange’s benchmark index closed just below that mark on Friday.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 156.14 points, or 1.05%, at 14,984.20.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index closed up 35.24 points, or 1.37%, at 2,611.32.

In New York, U.S. markets were mixed on Monday. The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 41.36 points, or 0.32%, at 13,028.16. The S&P 500 edged up 1.28 points, or 0.09%, to close at 1,426.63. The Nasdaq composite index closed down 12.76 points, or 0.50%, at 2,516.09.