Equity Markets
Canada's main stock index slipped at the open as oil prices, weakened by concerns of a diplomatic rift in the Middle East, hurt energy stocks, while financial stocks dipped amid signs of cooling in Toronto's overheated housing market.
The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index fell 90.06 points, or 0.58 per cent, to 15,352.69.
Eight of the index's 10 main groups retreated.
U.S. stocks were little changed at the open on Monday as investors shrugged off the weekend attacks in London, while awaiting a string of economic data.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 36.73 points, or 0.17 per cent, to 21,169.56. The S&P 500 lost 4.44 points, or 0.18 per cent, to 2,434.63. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 6.97 points, or 0.11 per cent, to 6,298.56.
However, markets seemed to have largely shrugged off the weekend attacks in London, just days before Britain's general national election on Thursday.
U.S. stocks closed at record levels for a second consecutive session on Friday, as gains in technology and industrial stocks more than offset a lukewarm jobs report. Despite the disappointing data, investors still largely anticipate the Federal Reserve to raise rates at its June 13-14 meeting, with traders expecting a 90.7-per cent chance of a quarter-point hike, according to Thomson Reuters data.
European shares slipped on Monday as an early boost from energy shares faded, and banks fell, led lower by Spain's Banco Popular on concerns that it could be wound down.
An Islamist attack in London days before a national election on Thursday had no major impact on broader equity markets, while geopolitical tensions in the Middle East lifted energy stocks in early deals.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index was down 0.15 per cent, with activity reduced by a public holiday in the region, while Britain's FTSE, which hit a fresh record high on Friday, was also down, by 0.3 per cent. France's CAC was off 0.69 per cent. Germany's market was closed for a holiday.
The modest reaction to the latest terrorist attack in London follows the pattern after attacks in other European cities in recent months.
Prime Minister Theresa May said Thursday's election would go ahead. Opinion polls in the past week have put her Conservatives ahead, though with a narrowing lead over the Labour opposition.
In the Middle East, Qatar's main stock index fell more than 7 per cent after Saudi Arabia - the world's biggest crude oil exporter - the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain cut ties with Qatar, accusing the Gulf Arab state of supporting terrorism. The move escalated a dispute over Qatar's support for the Muslim Brotherhood, the world's oldest Islamist movement.
In Asia, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan climbed 0.1 percent. Japan's Nikkei closed down 0.03 per cent. The Shanghai index was down 0.45 per cent, and the Hang Seng was off 0.24 per cent.
Commodities
Oil rose 1 per cent before paring gains on Monday after a diplomatic rift involving some of the Arab world's major energy producers.
Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, rose more than 1 percent at one point, recouping some of last week's 4 percent loses, before paring gains. It stood at $50.29 a barrel, up 0.7 per cent.
"There is not much geopolitical risk premium priced into oil right now, (but) if tensions do ratchet higher between the key OPEC producers, like Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq, then the market will start paying attention to this," said Virendra Chauhan, an oil analyst at consultants Energy Aspects.
Gold hit a six-week high of $1,282 an ounce, with traders citing the U.S. jobs report and reduced prospects of aggressive Fed rate increases.
Currencies and bonds
The U.S. dollar lifted off seven-month lows hit on Friday in reaction to a weaker-than-forecast U.S. jobs report as U.S. Treasury yields rose and markets signalled they expected the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates next week.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a currency basket, rose 0.1 per cent, having hit its lowest since Nov. 9 after Friday's report showing the U.S. economy added fewer jobs than expected last month. Unemployment, however, fell to a 16-year low of 4.3 per cent.
U.S. 10-year Treasury yields, which fell on Friday, were up 1.4 basis points at 2.173 per cent.
The Canada 10 year bond was off 0.12 to 1.41.
The Canadian dollar was up marginally to 74.09 cents (U.S.).
Markets see a 94.7 per cent chance of the Federal Reserve raising interest rates at its June 13-14 meeting, though a Reuters poll on Friday showed top U.S. banks split about when the central bank hikes rates after that.
Sterling weakened only marginally following a deadly attack in London days before a parliamentary election.
Britain's pound fell half a cent against the dollar after the third militant attack in Britain in less than three months but recovered to trade down just 0.1 percent at $1.2875.
Stocks set to see action
Executives at Tim Hortons's parent company face shareholders at its annual meeting on Monday amid secret talks with disgruntled franchisees and mounting criticism of the chain's cost-cutting efforts.
A group of franchisees formed the Great White North Franchisee Association in March to represent them in talks with Restaurant Brands International Inc., which owns the Canadian fast-food chain along with Burger King and Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen.
They have warned that RBI's aggressive hacking of costs has resulted in product shortages, declining quality and even safety concerns that are harming the brand.
Enbridge Inc. is mulling expansion of a major export pipeline, in the first sign of how the company plans to use its scale after a $37-billion merger with Spectra Energy Corp.
Chief executive officer Al Monaco said in an interview that the company is assessing a range of opportunities as it looks to integrate Spectra's sprawling network of pipelines and processing infrastructure into its own operations. They include a possible expansion of the newly acquired Express pipeline from Alberta to Wyoming.
Canada's Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd. said on Monday it had agreed to buy a precious metals portfolio from U.S. private equity firm Orion Mine Finance Group for $1.13-billion to expand its diamond, gold and silver asset base. Osisko will pay Orion $675-million in cash and the remaining $450-million in Osisko shares.
Private equity firm Blackstone Group has offered about $2-billion (U.S.) to buy Finland-based real estate company Sponda.
Shares of Apple Inc. were down 0.8 per cent in premarket trading ahead of the tech giant's five-day annual developer conference. There is a possibility the company will take the unusual step of introducing a new product.
Herbalife was down 4.6 per cent after the nutritional supplement maker lowered its sales outlook for the current quarter.
Forestar Group jumped 13.4 per cent after U.S. homebuilder D.R. Horton offered to buy 75 per cent of the real estate development company. D.R. Horton stock was unchanged.
The successful opening of the movie Wonder Woman this past weekend could fuel shares of Time Warner Inc. to a 20 per cent stock return over the coming year, Barron's said on Sunday. Time Warner's stock was up 0.6 per cent in premarket trading.
Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. will join Foxconn's bid for Toshiba Corp.'s semiconductor business, the Nikkei business daily quoted Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou as saying on Monday.
The two U.S. technology giants plan to "chip in funds," Mr. Gou said, according the interview with the newspaper. It was not immediately clear if this would take the form of a direct investment in the semiconductor unit or would be financing for the deal.
TG Therapeutics jumped 14.1 per cent after the drugmaker's data from the trial of its experimental cancer drug yielded positive results.
More reading: Monday's small-cap stocks to watch
More reading: Signs of unease in stock market getting harder to ignore
Economic News
The productivity of American workers was flat in the first three months of this year, while labour costs rose at the fastest pace since the second quarter of last year. The Labor Department says productivity growth was zero in the January-March quarter after rising at a 1.8 per cent annual rate in the fourth quarter. It was the weakest performance since productivity had fallen at a 0.1 per cent rate in the second quarter of last year but an improvement from an initial reading of a 0.6 per cent decline.
Labour costs rose at a 2.2 per cent rate after having fallen at a 4.6 per cent rate in the fourth quarter. It was the fastest gain since April-June of last year. Productivity growth has been weak through most of the current recovery.
The consensus projections were for an annualized rate decline of 0.2 per cent and increase of 2.5 per cent, respectively, from Q4.
Economic activity in the non-manufacuring sector grew in May, reaching 56.9 for the month, falling slightly short of economists' expectations of 57, down from 57.5 in previous month.
(9:45 a.m. ET) U.S. Markit PMI for May.
(10 a.m. ET) U.S. Federal Reserve Labor Market Conditions Index for May. The analyst estimate is an increase of 2.0 points from the previous month.
(10 a.m. ET) U.S. factory orders for April. Consensus is a decline of 0.2 per cent from March.
With files from Reuters and Bloomberg