TORONTO – The Toronto stock market looked set to open lower Monday with investors cautious ahead of a heavy slate of U.S. earnings news this week and rising tensions in the standoff between Ukraine and Russia.

The Canadian dollar advanced 0.05 of a cent to 91.14 cents US.

U.S. futures were positive as earnings from Citigroup beat expectations.

The Dow Jones industrial futures climbed 29 points to 16,010 as the bank reported adjusted earnings of $1.30 a share, 16 cents higher than expectations and its shares ran ahead 3.1 per cent in pre-market trading.

The Nasdaq futures were up 9.8 points to 3,453.8, while the S&P 500 futures added 4.6 points to 1,816.3.

Stock markets racked up sharp losses last week with the TSX down almost one per cent and the Dow industrials gave back 2.35 per cent as investors rotated out of high flying biotechnology and technology stocks in particular.

In addition to stock valuations, traders are concerned about Chinese growth prospects and corporate earnings.

Investors will be particularly anxious to see the latest Chinese growth figures, which come out later this week. There has been increasing pessimism that the world’s second-biggest economy can reach the 7.5 per cent growth that the government has targeted.

Meanwhile, financial analysts expect earnings for companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 to drop 1.6 per cent from a year earlier, according to FactSet, a financial data provider. That was a reversal from the start of the year, when they expected a jump of 4.3 per cent.

Geopolitical concerns were back in focus after Ukraine’s government said Sunday it was sending troops to try to quash a pro-Russian insurgency in eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian and Western officials have accused Moscow of instigating the protests, saying the events echoed those in Crimea, which was annexed by Russia last month.

That has raised the prospect of more sanctions against Russia, possibly affecting the energy trade that is so valuable to both Russia and Europe.

In the resource sector, mining giant Glencore Xstrata said it was selling its Las Bambas copper project in Peru to a group of Chinese state-owned companies for US$5.85 billion.

The purchase adds to a multibillion-dollar string of foreign acquisitions by China’s government-owned energy and mining companies, which hope to profit from future demand.

On Canada’s West Coast, the residents of Kitimat, B.C. have voted against Enbridge’s (TSX:ENB) proposed Northern Gateway pipeline project in a non-binding plebiscite by a vote of 1,793 to 1,278. The $6.5-billion project would see two pipelines, one carrying oilsands bitumen from Alberta to Kitimat’s port, and a second carrying condensate — a form of natural gas used to dilute the bitumen — from Kitimat back to Alberta.

The federal cabinet is expected to release its decision on Northern Gateway by June.

Commodity prices were mixed with May crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange off a dime to US$103.64 a barrel.

May copper was unchanged at $3.05 a pound while June bullion gained $3.20 to US$1,322.20 an ounce.

The so-called Heartbleed bug has been another source of uncertainty for businesses.

The Canada Revenue Agency said Sunday that its online services are up and running again after it blocked public access five days ago due to the bug. However, it added that 900 taxpayers’ social insurance numbers were stolen.

European markets were in the red with London’s FTSE 100 index down 0.3 per cent, Frankfurt’s DAX declined 0.45 per cent while the Paris CAC 40 fell 0.4 per cent.