Toronto stocks were dragged lower Monday on concerns that U.S. interest rates may have to climb to woo foreign investors. At midday, the S&P/TSX was down 17.78 points, or 0.20%, at 9,040.19. Volume was 120 million shares.

Only five of the 10 TSX groups were higher at midday, led by a 0.29% increase in the materials group.

Teck Cominco shares were up 0.41% to $46.80.

There were smaller gains among technology, consumer, telecommunication and utility stocks.

The heavily weighted financial services group was down 0.55%. Royal Bank was off 1.1% to $61.95, while Bank of Nova Scotia was up 0.05% at $37.30.

Both banks report fourth-quarter earnings Tuesday.

In mergers and acquisition news, BFI Canada Income Fund and IESI Corp. in Texas have agreed to a $1.1 billion merger. The deal will give IESI shareholders a 39% stake in one of North America’s largest non-hazardous solid waste management companies.

BFI said the deal is expected to immediately add 12% to its cash distributions per unit. Its units surged $1.75 to $27.55.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index was up 9.00 points, or 0.52%, at 1,753.17, on volume of 52 million shares.

On Wall Street, U.S. stocks turned sharply lower Monday morning as weakness in the bond market sparked by concern that U.S. interest rates may have to rise in order to stoke foreign investor appetite for U.S. assets weighed on sentiment.

Wal-Mart’s November sales warning, meanwhile, cast a pall on an otherwise solid start to the holiday shopping season.

At midday, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 90.07 points, or 0.86%, at 10,432.16.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index was down 7.54 points, or 0.36%, at 2,094.43.

The broader S&P 500 fell 8.47 points, or 0.72%, to 1,174.18.