U.S. stock futures fell Monday, dragged lower by a Citigroup downgrade, and a big writedown at Swiss Reinsurance.

Goldman Sachs Group cut its rating for financial-services giant Citigroup Inc. rating to “sell” from “neutral.” The brokerage estimated Citigroup will incur US$15 billion in writedowns on collateralized debt obligations over the next two quarters.

Swiss Re today reported after-tax losses of US$878 million on its subprime credit exposure. But the company said it will still post a full-year net profit for 2007 and the year-end return on equity would be above its 13% target.

In today’s economic news, Statistics Canada said widespread gains contributed to an estimated 1.1% rise in wholesales sales in September to $43.7 billion, partially offsetting August’s 1.9% decline.

September’s increase, coupled with a healthy gain in July, pushed overall sales in the third quarter up 1.2%, more than reversing the second quarter’s 0.6% decline, StatsCan said.

Separately, StatsCan reported that Canadians reduced their holdings of foreign securities in September by almost the same amount as foreign investors disposed of Canadian securities, marking the second consecutive month of significant decrease in both Canadian and foreign holdings.

Canadians cut their holdings of foreign securities by a “significant” $4.5 billion, meanwhile, non-residents removed $5.2 billion worth of Canadian securities from their holdings.

The Canadian dollar opened at US$1.0243 cents, down 0.26 of a cent from Friday.

In today’s earnings news, home-improvement retailer Lowe’s reported a 10% profit decline for the third quarter and said industry pressures will continue into 2008.

Hewlett-Packard results are expected after the close of trade.

Crude-oil futures for January delivery rose 61¢ to US$94.45 a barrel.

Gold futures rose $1.50 to US$788.50 ounce.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average fell 0.74%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index decreased 0.56%.

In European trading, the UK’s FTSE 100 declined 0.87%, Germany’s DAX index dipped 0.73% and France’s CAC-40 slid 0.41%.


Toronto stocks finished flat on Friday, as gains in energy shares offset weakness in financial issues.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 5.93 points, or 0.04%, at 13,530.36.

The benchmark index was down 2.4% on the week and has lost 7.5% since the start of November.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index fell 7.37 points, or 0.25%, to end at 2,937.20.

In New York, U.S. ended higher after a day of sharp price swings.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 66.74 points, or 0.51%, to close at 13,176.79. The S&P 500 gained 7.59 points, or 0.52%, to end at 1,458.74. The Nasdaq composite index added 18.73 points, or 0.72%, to finish at 2,637.24.

For the week, the Dow gained 1.03%, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq each ended up 0.35%.