TORONTO — The Toronto stock market headed for a lower open Monday as oil prices backed off amid demand worries and a stronger U.S. currency. The Canadian dollar was lower against the greenback, down 0.74 of a cent to 102.5 cents US. New York markets were also in for a negative start to the trading week with the Dow Jones industrial futures down 58 points to 12,498, the Nasdaq futures declined five points to 2,365 and the S&P 500 futures were off 5.4 points to 1,328.6. The operator of the Toronto stock exchange will also be in sharp focus after TMX Group Inc. (TSX:X) said over the weekend that it has received a takeover offer from Maple Group Acquisition Corp., made up of five of the country's largest pension funds and four Canadian owned investment dealers. The offer is worth about $3.6 billion. Maple Group is offering $48 a share, a big premium from the TMX Group's closing price of $41.75 on Friday. TMX Group has been in the midst of an attempted multi-billion merger with the London Stock Exchange. Meanwhile, in the U.S., the Nasdaq and IntercontinentalExchange say they have withdrawn their bid to buy the company that owns the New York Stock Exchange. NYSE Euronext (NYSE:NYX) says it’s committed to a US$10-billion merger with German exchange operator Deutsche Boerse. Resource stocks will likely be a drag on the TSX as oil prices continued to retreat from a 30-month high near US$115 at the beginning of the month amid a rally of the dollar, which has made crude more expensive for investors with other currencies. The June contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell $1.14 to US$98.51 a barrel. Prices also fell sharply last week as data showed a sharp drop in gasoline consumption in the U.S. Metal prices also fell as the July copper contract on the Nymex fell two cents to US$3.96 a pound. Gold prices ticked higher with the June bullion contract ahead $1.30 to US$1,494.90 an ounce. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index dropped 0.9 per cent, South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.8 per cent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 1.4 per cent. Mainland Chinese shares lost ground Monday following the latest increase in the central bank’s reserve requirement for banks, which was announced Friday. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.8 per cent. European bourses were lower as with investors taken aback by the arrest of prominent political figure and International Monetary Fund head Dominique Strauss-Kahn in New York on attempted rape and sexual assault charges. London's FTSE 100 index lost 0.89 per cent, Frankfurt's DAX fell 1.21 per cent and the Paris CAC 40 dropped 1.27 per cent. A member of France’s Socialist party, Strauss-Kahn was also widely considered the strongest potential challenger next year to President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose political fortunes have been flagging. In other corporate news, Research in Motion Ltd. (TSX:RIM) is recalling about 1,000 of its PlayBook tablets that were shipped with faulty operating systems that may have prevented users from performing the initial setup of the device. In a statement, RIM said the majority of the affected devices haven't reached customers. Home improvement retailer Lowe’s Cos. said Monday its first-quarter profit fell six per cent to US$461 million or 34 cents a share, pressured in part by bad weather and difficult economic conditions, and cut its full-year outlook. Revenue dipped two per cent to US$12.19 billion, with revenue at stores open at least a year down 3.3 per cent. Copyright © 2011 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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