Stocks are expected to open lower Tuesday after a terrorist bombing in Jerusalem dealt a blow to futures trading in New York. Profit taking after Monday’s rally is also likely.

In economic news, after a buoyant first quarter, manufacturers saw their shipments jump 5% in April from March to $43.9 billion. Statistics Canada reports in the April Survey of Manufacturing that while this increase was observed in 18 of the 21 major groups, representing 93.3% of total shipments, it came mainly from the motor vehicle sector. Even excluding that industry, April’s shipments were strong, with an increase of 3.3%.

In the United States, housing starts jumped in May by the biggest amount in nearly seven years, snapping back from a small decline the previous month.

Housing starts rose 11.6% to a seasonally adjusted 1.733 million annual rate, the largest gain since July 1995. That follows a revised 7.3% fall in April to a 1.553 million pace. Economists had expected a rebound, but only to a 1.6 million annual pace.

U.S. consumer prices were unchanged in May. The news gives the Federal Reserve ample time to delay raising interest rates to allow the economy to gain strength.

Held down by declining energy and food prices, the U.S. Consumer Price Index was unchanged in May after a seasonally-adjusted 0.5% rise a month earlier, the U.S. Labor Department said. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, the core CPI rose 0.2%, after gaining 0.3% in April. The increase in the core rate was in line the expectations of economists.


In Europe, stocks are trading lower. The FTSE 100 is down 29.7 points at 4,727.1. The Paris CAC 40 is down 0.71%, while the Frankfurt DAX 30 is off 1.35%.

Overnight in Asia, the Nikkei Stock Average closed at 10,839.93, up 175.82 points, led by led by technology and financial stocks.