Source: The Canadian Press

The Toronto stock market could face weakness from the resource sector at the open on Wednesday as negative sentiment about the global economy dragged down oil and metal prices.

The Canadian dollar climbed 0.09 of a cent to 94.97 cents US.

U.S. futures pointed to a positive open with the Dow Jones industrial futures ahead 45 points to 10,064, the Nasdaq futures gained 15 points to 1,846 and the S&P 500 index futures rose 6.4 points to.

The July crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange slipped 20 cents to US$72.38 a barrel.

The August gold contract on the Nymex declined $4.40 to US$1,222.50 an ounce while July copper in New York fell seven cents to US$3 a pound.

Equity markets and commodity prices have been battered for the last month amid fears that Europe’s debt crisis could spread and slow global economic growth.

Those worries, and concerns arising from a report indicating slowing Chinese manufacturing, pushed markets sharply lower on Tuesday, with the TSX’s main index tumbling 191 points.

The Dow Jones industrials fell 113 points as investors also fretted about the implications of the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Losses accelerated late in the session when the U.S. government said it was starting criminal and civil investigations against BP PLC, Europe’s second biggest oil company. That has raised concerns that the sector will now be more tightly regulated.

With traders mostly focused on the health of Europe’s economy and political events over the past month, domestic economic reports have taken somewhat of a backseat. U.S. stocks couldn’t hold onto early gains Tuesday following a better-than-expected report on the American manufacturing sector from the Institute for Supply Management.

On Wednesday, a report is expected to show pending home sales surged in April. However, like many other housing reports from the month, investors are likely to dismiss the results. That’s because April was the final month for home buyers to qualify for a tax credit. Analysts widely expect housing data to weaken in the coming months because the credit has expired.

Investors are also cautious ahead of the release of May employment data for the U.S. and Canada on Friday.

Economists predict the American unemployment rate dipped to 9.8% in April as employers added 513,000 jobs.

It is estimated the Canadian economy added about 20,000 jobs last month.

Earlier in Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dipped 0.1% while Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average lost 1.1%.

London’s FTSE 100 index lost 0.95% while Frankfurt’s DAX was down 0.65% 1.22 as the German cabinet on Wednesday approved a bill that would cement in law curbs on speculative trading practices.

Germany’s regulator rattled markets last month by abruptly banning naked short-selling of eurozone government debt and major financial stocks, as well as naked credit default swaps involving eurozone debt.

The new legislation would extend it to all stocks.

Short-selling is a way of betting an asset will go down by borrowing securities and selling them in hopes of buying them cheaper later. Naked short-selling involves selling shares without first borrowing them.

The Paris CAC 40 declined 1.22%.

In corporate news, aircraft and rail manufacturer Bombardier Inc. (TSX:BBD.B) reported it had a US$153-million profit in the first quarter. That came in at eight cents a share, a cent better than analysts had forecast.

Bombardier’s revenue dropped to US$4.2 billion in quarter, down $300 million from the year-earlier period, but also slightly better than analyst estimates.

ATS Automation Tooling Systems Inc. (TSX:ATA) had a $26-million loss from operations in the fourth quarter of its 2010 financial year, which included a $40.3-million writedown of inventories at the company’s Photowatt solar-energy division.

Goldcorp Inc. (TSX:G) has agreed to sell the San Dimas gold-silver mine in Mexico to Mala Noche Resources Corp. (TSXV:MLA) in a cash and share deal valued at US$500 million. Goldcorp would end up owning about 30% of the junior mining company.