Bay Street Seen Opening On Weak Note

(RTTNews) - Canadian shares look headed for a weak start Monday morning, tracking lower crude oil and bullion prices. Fading hopes of an early interest-rate cut by the Federal Reserve may also weigh on sentiment.

On the economic front, data on Canadian services sector activity for the month of January is due at 9:30 AM ET.

The S&P Global Canada Composite PMI edged lower t0 44.7 in December from 44.8 in November, declining for the seventh consecutive month. The S&P Global Canada Services PMI came in at 44.6 in December, little changed from November's score of 44.5.

The Canadian market ended marginally down on Friday as data showing a bigger than expected addition in U.S. non-farmroll employment in the month of January dashed hopes of an early rate cut from the Federal Reserve.

Energy stocks tumbled on concerns about the outlook for oil demand from the world's second largest economy, and potential impact of higher interest rates on U.S. economic growth. Gold stocks declined on stronger dollar.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index, which fell to a low of 20,943.08 earlier in the day, losing more than 160 points in the process, ended the session at 21,085.09 with a loss of 34.12 points or 0.16%. The index gained about 0.3% in the week.

Asian stocks ended lower on Monday as buoyant U.S. jobs data coupled with relatively hawkish comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell in an interview broadcast Sunday night led investors to scale back bets on interest rate cuts this year.

European stocks are turning in a mixed performance in lackluster trade, amid fading rate cut hopes, and data showing a drop in Eurzone services sector activity in the month of January.

In commodities, West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures are down $0.33 or 0.48% at $71.95 a barrel.

Gold futures are down $19.10 or 0.91% at $2,034.60 an ounce, while Silver futures are lower by $0.401 or 1.76% at $22.395 an ounce.