The Canadian dollar opened trading Monday at US102.04¢, down 1.51¢ from Friday, after Bank of Canada governor David Dodge suggested over the weekend that the loonie’s ascent to parity with the U.S. greenback may be unjustified.

“The recent round of appreciation has been abnormally quick and doesn’t seem to be related to the domestic factors, which would normally lead to that sort of appreciation,” Dodge told an audience of international bankers Sunday after a weekend of International Monetary Fund meetings in Washington, D.C.

Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed toward a lower open Monday as investors prepared to extend the sharp losses from Friday.

Overseas, markets slumped Monday. The Nikkei 225 dropped 2.2% in Tokyo and the FTSE 100 fell 1.5% in London, as international investors had their first opportunity to react to North American selloff on Friday.

In today’s earnings news, Schering-Plough reported a doubling of earnings, Merck raising its 2007 earnings guidance and Hasbro reporting a 62% profit rise.

Earnings are due from Apple, Texas Instruments and American Express after the close of trading.

In M&A news, Wall Street investment bank Bear Stearns reached a deal with the Chinese investment bank Citic Securities that would give each company a stake in the other and pave the way for business partnerships in both the U.S. and in Asia.

The Toronto stock market closed sharply lower on Friday as profit-taking and jitters over the impact of the credit squeeze on global economies triggered broad-based declines.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed 330.37 points, or 2.31%, lower at 14,001.66.

For the week, the benchmark index ended the week down 2%, after finishing up for the past five weeks.

The market’s decline coincided with the 20th anniversary of “Black Monday,” when the Dow industrials fell nearly 23% on Oct. 19, 1987, and the key Toronto index fell 11.1%.

The S&P/TSX Venture composite index was off 37.29 points to 3,010.02.

In New York, signs that the housing slump was infecting the wider economy sent U.S. stocks tumbling.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 366.94 points, or 2.64%, to end at 13,522.02. The S&P 500 was down 39.45 points, or 2.56%, at 1,500.63. The Nasdaq composite index was down 74.15 points, or 2.65%, at 2,725.16.

For the week, the Dow fell 4.1%, the S&P lost 3.9% and the Nasdaq shed 2.9%.