Bay Street Seen Opening On Negative Note

(RTTNews) - Lower futures and falling commodity prices point to a weak start for the Canadian stock market on Monday. Worries about a surge in coronavirus cases and fresh curbs in China are also likely to weigh.

With more inflation data from the U.S. due this week, and the Canadian central bank set to announce its interest rate decision on Wednesday, the mood in the market is likely to remain extremely cautious.

In corporate news, Link Administration Holdings Limited (LNK) on Monday rejected a A$4.57 per share revised buy-out proposal from Dye & Durham Limited (DND.TO).

Dye & Durham Limited last week made a second revised proposal to Link Administration with respect to its offer to acquire Link Group. Dye & Durham's latest proposal of up to A$4.70 per Link Group share is comprised of A$4.57 per share in base consideration under the proposed acquisition's scheme implementation deed and up to A$0.13 per share contemplated under the scheme implementation deed for the proceeds from the sale of Link Group's Banking and Credit Management business.

The Canadian stock market ended modestly lower on Friday with investors making largely cautious moves, after Canadian employment data raised expectations that the Bank of Canada will announce a sharp rate hike next week.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended with a loss of 40.31 points or 0.21% at 19,022.86, well off the day's low of 18,897.74. The index gained about 0.9% in the week.

Asian stocks ended broadly lower on Monday as upbeat U.S. jobs data rekindled worries over aggressive policy tightening and parts of China's financial hub faced more rounds of mass testing to fight rising COID-19 infections.

Shanghai reported its first case of the highly infectious BA.5 omicron sub-variant on Sunday and warned of "very high" risks, raising fears about more lockdowns.

Despite coming off early lows, European stocks are firmly down in negative territory a little past noon today amid worries about corporate earnings outlook, energy crisis following Russia turning off Nord Stream 1, and fresh Covid-19 curbs in China.

In commodities trading, West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures are down $2.31 or 2.2% at $102.48 a barrel.

Gold futures are down $9.50 or 0.55% at $1,732.80 an ounce, while Silver futures are lower by $0.091 or 0.47% at $19.145 an ounce.