Wall Street futures are slightly down Monday pointing to a sluggish opening for the equity markets. In earnings news, 3M reported better than expected earnings, while Merck reported essentially flat earnings.

In Canada, earnings have been mixed and have not fully justified the market’s surge over the past four months.

This is the third week quarterly profit reports. Today’s scheduled earnings include miner Falconbridge Ltd., software firm Hummingbird Ltd., wood and steel door maker Masonite International Corp. and methanol producer Methanex Corp.

Meanwhile, investors have a Statistics Canada report on retail sales to mull over. Retail sales increased 0.3% in May to $26.2 billion, the first gain in three months. Sales had fallen 0.8% in April and 0.7% in March. In the first five months of 2003, retail sales grew on average 0.3% per month, maintaining the same pace as in 2002.

All retailers posted sales increases in May, with the exception of supermarkets and grocery stores (-2.5%), gasoline service stations (-6.6%), and alcoholic beverage stores (-3.2%). But excluding sales by these retailers, retail sales increased 2.2% in May. May’s strength in retail sales was concentrated in Ontario (+1.6%), Quebec (+0.6%) and Manitoba (+0.3%).

In Europe, investors are bracing themselves for an expected sharpl decline auto stocks, led by DaimlerChrysler. European blue chips are down. At midday, Britain’s FTSE is down 0.11%, Germany’s DAX has lost 1.46%. France’s CAC has fallen 1.11%.

Japanese financial markets were closed for a national holiday. They were scheduled to reopen Tuesday.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index slipped 37.98 to 10,102.86, after prices rose in the morning session in reaction to Friday’s gains on Wall Street, but scaled back on profit-taking in the afternoon.