Wall Street stock futures gained Tuesday as the U.S. Federal Reserve prepared to begin a two-day meeting on interest rates.

A statement on U.S. interest rates is expected on Wednesday.

Here at home, retail sales fell 0.6% in July following two months of increase, Statistics Canada reported.

Most of the decline reflected lower prices at gasoline stations, as retail sales in volume terms were down 0.1% from June.

Economists had forecast a 0.7% monthly increase.

The Canadian dollar opened up 0.85 of a cent at US93.66¢.

In corporate news, Onex Corp. announced it will reduce its stake in Celestica Inc. but retain control of the Toronto-based global manufacturing company.

Onex says it will sell 11 million subordinate voting shares of Celestica at $10.30 each to a syndicate lead by CIBC for gross proceeds of $113.3 million. Celestica shares closed Monday at $10.53.

In commodities news, gold futures traded near US$1,017 an ounce while
oil moved back above US$70 a barrel.

In Asia, markets in Japan were closed for public holidays. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index rose 1.1% to 21,701.14.

European markets moved higher in late morning trade. The UK’s FTSE 100 index was up 1% at 5,186.5, Frankfurt’s DAX gained 1.2% to 5,736.2, and the CAC-40 in Paris climbed 1.1% to 3,852.9.

Declining commodity prices weighed down the Toronto Stock Exchange on Monday, but late-day strength in energy stocks helped the benchmark index pare its earlier losses.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed at 11,424.61, down 21.34 points, or 0.2%.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index shed 16.80 points, or 1.3%, to close at 1,265.00.

In New York, U.S. stock markets experienced mixed results, with the technology-heavy Nasdaq the only major U.S. index to finish with gains.

The Dow Jones industrial average sank 41.27 points, or 0.4%, to 9,778.86.

The S&P 500 fell 3.64 points, or 0.3%, to 1,064.66.

The Nasdaq rose 5.18 points, or 0.2%, to 2,138.04.

IE