A statue of Christopher Columbus with an extended hand is seen in front of a Spanish flag in central Madrid June 11, 2012. Spain faces supervision by international lenders after a bailout for its banks agreed at the weekend, EU and German officials said on Monday, contradicting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy who had insisted the cash came without such strings.Reuters
The Toronto stock market shifted lower shortly after the open as concerns about the global economy led to weakness across nearly every sector.
The S&P/TSX composite index backed off 29.82 points to 11,495.08, as worries from Europe translated overseas.
U.S. stocks are also falling after the opening bell as Europe's debt crisis roils markets despite the victory of a pro-Europe party in Greek elections.
The Dow is down 50 points at 12,717 in the first ten minutes of trading. The S&P 500 is off five at 1,337. The Nasdaq is down 11 at 2,861.
The outcome of the Greek elections quickly took a back seat to another round of concern about Spain's debt problems.
In commodities, the July crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange was down $1.50 at $82.53 U.S. a barrel. August gold edged down $5.50 to $1,622.60 U.S. an ounce.
The Canadian dollar was down 0.37 of a cent to 97.46 cents U.S.
The TSX Venture Exchange opened at 1,253.17, up 2.15 points from Friday's close. The volume at 10 a.m. ET was 13.74 million shares.
In other news, Statistics Canada reports non-residents bought a net $10.2-billion of Canadian securities in April, after a sell-off in March. Meanwhile, Canadian investors' holdings of foreign securities declined $2.7-billion.