Wall Street stock futures were flat on Tuesday amid a flood of corporate earnings and ahead of a report on U.S. home sales.

Pending home sales data for December are due at 10:00 ET, while car makers will report January vehicles sales throughout the trading day.

Here at home, the Canadian dollar opened at US80.27¢ on Tuesday, down 0.14 of a cent from Monday’s close.

In M&A news, Bank of Nova Scotia has completed the acquisition of an additional 24% of Thanachart Bank, Thailand’s eighth-largest bank and leading automobile lender, for approximately $270 million.

Scotiabank will purchase 416 million shares from Thanachart Capital raising Scotiabank’s holding in Thanachart Bank to 49%, the bank said Tuesday.

In earnings news, Motorola swung to a fourth-quarter net loss of US$3.58 billion. The company also projected first-quarter earnings below analysts’ views.

Dow Chemical Co. lost more than US$1.5 billion in the fourth quarter.

Memory-chip maker SanDisk reported a US$1.9 billion loss.

Drug maker Merck & Co. posted a fourth-quarter net profit, sending shares 4.7% higher before the bell.

In commodities news, oil futures were holding at over US$40 a barrel, while gold futures were trading around US$903 an ounce.

Overseas, oil and gas shares dragged European indexes lower, with London’s FTSE recently trading down 1.1%, after BP posted a $3.3 billion fourth-quarter loss.

Germany’s DAX index fell 0.3%, and France’s CAC-40 fell 0.3%.

In Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei gave up early gains to fall 0.6%.

Broad-based losses across nearly all market sectors sent the benchmark index of the Toronto Stock Exchange sharply lower on Monday.

The S&P/TSX composite index fell 70.07 points, or 0.8%, to finish at 8,624.83.

The materials group led the slide, with a 2.2% drop.

The financials group slipped 0.8% on Monday.

The S&P/TSX Venture exchange finished the day down 9.81 points, or 1.1%, at 872.82.

In the United States, energy, industrials and materials stocks dragged the markets lower, while technology shares helped offset losses.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 64.11 points, or 0.8%, to 7,936.75.

The S&P 500 index dipped 0.44 points, or 0.5%, to close at 825.44.

The Nasdaq composite managed a gain of 18.01 points, or 1.2%, to end at 1,494.43.

IE