Canadian stocks may have a quiet opening today as U.S. markets stay closed for a holiday.
On Friday, the Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index (TSE:OSPTX) closed little changed at 15,200.76 on Friday. The gauge is up 3.9 percent this year.
In commodities, front-month Brent crude shed $0.17 to $65.20 a barrel by 6:52 a.m. U.S. crude was down $0.35 at $59.37 a barrel. Oil fell as the U.S. dollar strengthened.
The Canadian dollar was up 0.18 of a U.S. cent at 81.47 cents.
Gold prices fell slightly today. Spot gold was down 0.2 percent at $1,203.46 an ounce by 7:27 a.m., just above a near-two-week low of $1,201.20 hit in the previous session.
In Europe, stocks pushed lower, weighed down by concerns about the state of Greece’s finances and political instability in Spain, although trading is limited with key markets closed. The benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 index traded 0.2 percent lower, with France’s CAC-40 down 0.8 percent and Italy’s FTSE MIB 2 percent weaker.
In company news, Barrick Gold (TSE:ABX), the world’s largest producer of the metal by volume, signed a deal to sell its Cowal mine in Australia to Evolution Mining for $550 million. The shares closed down 0.5 percent to C$15.11, paring gains this year to 21 percent.
Blackberry (TSE:BB), the Waterloo, Ontario-based smartphone maker, said on Friday that is cutting jobs across the world as it consolidates its software, hardware and applications business. The stock closed up 2.7 percent at C$12.88 on Friday, expanding gains over the past six months to 9.5 percent.
U.S. stock markets are closed for the Memorial Day holiday.