Concerns over China and the rising price of oil and other inputs pushed most global stocks lower, and U.S. stock futures pointed towards a flat opening at the start of earnings season.
Dow Jones industrials futures rose 28 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 12,354. S&P 500 futures gained 3 points, or 0.2 per cent, and Nasdaq futures rose 7.5 points, or 0.3 per cent, to 2,325.50.
Alcoa kicks off earnings season after the market closes Monday. Other big corporations due to report this week include JP Morgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and Google Inc.
In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down a little over a point to 6,055.06 while Germany's DAX fell 0.6 percent to 7,175. The CAC-40 in France was 0.7 percent lower at 4,032.
Gold jumped to a record high of $1,476.21 an ounce (U.S.) for a fifth straight trading day as the prospect of deeper declines in the U.S. dollar drove investors into the precious metal. Silver hit its highest since early 1980 at $41.93 an ounce as holdings of the world's largest silver-backed exchange-traded fund, New York's iShares Silver Trust, rose to a record 11,243 tonnes.The gold-to-silver ratio was at a 28-year low around 35.
U.S. crude for May delivery was down 27 cents to $112.52 a barrel after rising as high as $113.46 earlier, the highest since September 22, 2008.
Copper leapt to a five-week high of $9,944.75 a tonne, and aluminium jumped to $2,720 a tonne, a level last seen in August 2008. Lead touched $2,904 a tonne, its highest since since April 2008, and tin hit a record high of $33,600 a tonne.
Surging commodities prices pushed up China's import bill, nudging the world's second-largest economy into its first quarterly trade deficit since 2004 and raising questions over prospects for global economic growth.
A fresh earthquake in Japan also contributed to uncertainty. The Nikkei 225 stock average dipped 0.5 per cent to close at 9,719.70, while South Korea's Kospi edged down 0.3 per cent to end at 2,122.39. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index slid 0.4 per cent to finish at 24,303.07. Stocks in mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore and India also fell.
Sonali Verma