TORONTO - The Toronto stock market headed for a lower open Monday as traders focus on negotiations surrounding the next instalment of badly needed bailout money for Greece to avoid a looming fiscal crisis at the end of the year.

The Canadian dollar was down 0.15 of a cent to 100.66 cents US amid lower prices for oil and gold.

U.S. futures were lower with the Dow Jones industrial futures down 54 points to 12,907, the Nasdaq futures gave back 7.2 points to 2,627 and the S&P 500 futures lost 7.1 points to 1,398.2.

On the corporate front, traders will focus on Research In Motion Ltd. (TSX:RIM) (NASDAQ:RIMM). The Blackberry maker's shares surged 25 per cent last week in the wake of analyst upgrades and optimism about the launch of its new BlackBerry 10 operating system, which will be unveiled at a Jan. 30 event along with its new line of smartphones. It’s viewed as a make or break product launch for Research In Motion.

On Monday, CIBC World Markets upgraded the stock to sector outperform from sector perform with a US$17 share target. The shares closed at US$11.66 on Friday in New York, and $11.61 on the TSX.

Hudson’s Bay Co. (TSX:HBC) is officially returning to the Toronto Stock Exchange. An IPO by Canada’s oldest company values the retailer $17 a share, or about $2 billion in total. HBC says it plans to sell a total 21 million shares — about one-fifth of the company’s stock — raising about $365 million through an initial public offering. In early trading last week, on a so-called “if and when issued basis,” HBC shares ended the week at $16.85 per share.

And Canadian conglomerate Onex Corp. (TSX:OCX) is buying U.S. insurance company USI from a Goldman Sachs private equity fund in a US$2.3-billion deal.

The GS Capital Partners fund took the insurance broker private in 2007 for $1.4 billion, including debt. USI employees invested in the 2007 deal, and will now own the business with Onex, the companies said Monday.

Stock markets surged ahead last week amid hopes that American lawmakers can reach a compromise to avoid steep spending cuts and tax increases which would be triggered by the first of the year. If they don't, the shock from going over a so-called fiscal cliff would likely push the economy back into recession and damage what is already a fragile economic recovery.

The TSX gained 2.82 per cent last week after falling 2.6 per cent the previous week while the Dow industrials were up 3.34 per cent after losing almost two per cent.

Traders were also encouraged by millions of Americans flocking to shopping malls Thursday night and Friday to scoop up bargains.

Analysts say markets will be looking for progress in the fiscal cliff negotiations now that Congress is back in session following the Thanksgiving holiday amid worries that the uncertainty of a potential hike in taxes for middle class taxpayers could hurt consumer confidence during the crucial holiday shopping season.

In a new report that coincides with Congress’ return after the Thanksgiving holiday, the White House says that if lawmakers don’t halt the automatic increase in taxes for households earning less than US$250,000, consumers might even curtail their shopping during the current holiday season.

Meanwhile, eurozone finance ministers met in Brussels for a third time in recent weeks to get a deal together to release some €44 billion for Greece, which has been surviving on bailouts since 2010.

The eurozone ministers, Greece’s international creditors and the International Monetary Fund have been unable to agree on an agreement.

Greece is unlikely to complete its program of budget cuts and reforms by 2014 and is likely to be given an additional two years to reach that goal.

But that extension will cost several billion euros more, and it is disagreements over how to fund this that have stopped Greece from getting its money.

Commodity prices were mixed with January crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange down 50 cents to US$87.78 a barrel.

The December copper contract on the Nymex was unchanged at US$3.54 a pound.

December bullion faded $2.40 to US$1,749 an ounce.

In other corporate developments, Swiss public broadcaster RTS says the former head of construction of Canadian engineering firm SNC-Lavalin (TSX:SNC) has been formally charged by Swiss officials on allegations of money laundering. The RTS report is based on unnamed sources and Swiss authorities reached Sunday would not confirm or deny the arrest of Riadh Ben Aissa.

European bourses were in the red with London's FTSE 100 index down 0.67 per cent, Frankfurt's DAX was off 0.38 per cent while the Paris CAC 40 gave back 0.86 per cent.

Earlier, Asian markets failed to make much headway as Japan’s Nikkei 225 index rose 0.2 per cent while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was 0.3 per cent lower.

In China, the Shanghai Composite Index was down 0.5 per cent while the smaller Shenzhen Composite Index lost 1.4 per cent.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2012