Bay Street Likely To Open On Cautious Note

(RTTNews) - Canadian shares look headed for a flat to negative start on Monday, tracking weakness in Asian and European markets amid simmering trade war concerns.

Slightly higher crude oil prices may trigger some buying in the energy space and limit market's downside.

According to a report from Wall Street Journal, the Chinese government is likely to reject the U.S.' offer of talks aimed at diffusing trade tensions as it isn't prepared to negotiate with a "gun pointed to its head.

Meanwhile, reports suggest that the U.S. government may announce new tariffs about $200 billion of Chinese goods today.

Additionally, trade talks between the U.S. and Canadian chief negotiators ended inconclusively last week, and this is likely to restrain investors from making significant moves at higher levels.

On Friday, the benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index ended up 11.78 points, or 0.07%, at 16,013.49, after scaling a low of 15,981.01 and a high of 16,032.54 intraday.

The Stars Group Inc. (TSGI,TO) announced that it has filed a business acquisition report with respect to its acquisition of Sky Betting & Gaming and is providing certain supplemental historic financial information and additional highlights and updates for SBG.

Lift & Co.'s common shares are set to commence trading in the market on Monday, under the new ticker symbol 'LIFT' on the TSX Venture Exchange.

Asian markets ended weak on Monday on reports that the Trump administration has instructed aides to proceed with plans to impose tariffs on Chinese imports as early as this week.

European stocks were mostly subdued, with mining stocks coming under selling pressure on concerns that an escalating trade war between the United States and China could hurt global growth.

No big U.S. economic reports are lined up for the day. At 8:30 AM ET, the Empire State Manufacturing survey report will be out.

In commodities, crude oil futures for October were up $0.51, or 0.74%, at $69.28 a barrel.

Natural gas futures for October were gaining $0.021, or 0.76%, at $2.788 per million btu.

Gold futures for December were up marginally at $1,201.70 an ounce.

Silver futures for December were gaining $0.078, or 0.55%, at $14.220 an ounce, while Copper futures were declining by $0.022, or 0.83%, at $2.624 per pound.