Toronto stocks are set for a quiet trading session Monday with U.S. markets closed for the Memorial Day holiday.

In Europe, markets appeared to take a rejection by France of the European Union constitution in stride Monday, but currency traders sent the euro lower.

The Paris-based CAC 40 was down just 7.4, 0.18%, at 4,124.43, London’s FTSE 100 was off 8.6 points, about 0.17%, at 4,986.3 and Germany’s DAX gained 30.98, 0.7%, to 4,475.69.

The Canadian dollar opened at US79.45¢, down 0.29 of a cent after surging 0.81 of a cent to US79.74¢ Friday, its strongest close since May 12.

In today’s economic news, Statistics Canada reported the country’s current account surplus with the rest of the world, on a seasonally adjusted basis, dropped $1.3 billion in the first quarter of 2005 to $4 billion.

In the capital and financial account (not seasonally adjusted), growth in Canada’s foreign assets outpaced that in international liabilities for a sixth consecutive quarter.

Separately, StatsCan said monthly prices for manufactured goods at the factory gate increased for the fifth consecutive month in April. Raw materials prices were down from March as crude oil prices declined.

On Friday, Toronto stocks closed higher as gains in resource issues offset a flat tfinancials group. The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 40.31 points, or 0.42%, at 9,619.36.

On the week, the benchmark index gained 1.8%.


On Wall Street, U.S. stocks posted slight gains in light trading on Friday before the holiday weekend.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 4.95 points, or 0.05%, to end at 10,542.55. The S&P 500 Index gained 1.16 points, or 0.10%, to finish at 1,198.78. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index gained 4.49 points, or 0.22%, to close at 2,075.73.

For the week, the blue-chip Dow average gained 0.67%, while the S&P 500 advanced 0.80% and the Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 1.43%.