Wall Street futures indicated a weak open Tuesay as oil prices went up to near-record levels and UPS Inc. delivered a profit warning.

Light sweet crude was up US$1.28 at US$138.02 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after trading as high as $138.75 overnight.

UPS Inc. pointed to costly fuel late Monday as the shipping carrier pushed down its quarterly profit expectations.

There are no major economic releases from Statistics Canada today.

The Canadian dollar opened at US98.39¢, off 0.05 cent from Monday’s close.

South of the border, S&P/Case-Shiller releases its U.S. home price index and the U.S. Conference Board reports on consumer confidence.

In M&A news, BCE said late Monday that Industry Canada has approved the proposed $52 billion takeover of the telecommunications provider by an investor group led by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.

This was the final regulatory hurdle which had to be overcome by June 30 under the arrangement with the banks funding the heavily leveraged buyout.

Overseas, the FTSE 100 index was down 1.3% early in the afternoon in London, while the German DAX fell 1.7% and the Paris CAC-40 index receded 1.1%.

In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 1.1% and the Tokyo Nikkei index closed flat.

Toronto stocks powered ahead on Monday, buoyed by rising oil prices and a jump by BCE shares after the Supreme Court of Canada signed off on the proposed buyout of the telecom company.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 111.15 points, or 0.76%, at 14,691.82.


The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index fell 12.70 points, or 0.49%, to close at 2,603.61.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average dipped just 0.33 of a point to finish essentially flat at 11,842.36. The S&P 500 inched up 0.07 of a point, or 0.01%, to close at 1,318.00.

However, the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index fell 20.35 points, or 0.85%, to close at 2,385.74.