TORONTO – The Toronto stock market was set for a lower open Wednesday as worries about the pace of global growth raised concerns about demand for commodities and sent prices for energy and metals lower.

The Canadian dollar was down 0.52 of a cent to 97.47 cents US.

U.S. futures were also lower amid earnings disappointments from Bank of America and Yahoo.

The Dow Jones industrial futures fell 97 points to 14,588, the Nasdaq futures dropped 24.2 points to 2,803.8 and the S&P 500 futures lost 12.25 points to 1,556.5.

Oil and copper prices retreated a day after the International Monetary Fund lowered it global economic growth projections. The IMF cut its forecast for global growth to 3.3 per cent this year, down from its forecast in January of 3.5 per cent. The IMF predicts that government spending cuts will slow U.S. growth and keep the euro currency alliance in recession.

The IMF is keeping its prediction of four per cent global growth in 2014.

Further prospects for a sluggish recovery sent the May crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange down $1.15 to US$87.57 a barrel.

Copper, viewed as an economic bellwether, slid nine cents to US$3.21 a pound.

Both oil and copper sustained steep declines on Monday in the wake of Chinese growth data that failed to meet expectations. The world’s second-largest economy grew by 7.7 per cent over a year earlier, crushing hopes for growth of around eight per cent.

That prompted some private sector economists to cut their full-year growth forecasts for China, although they remained at a still robust level of just under eight per cent. The World Bank reduced its growth outlook this week from 8.4 per cent to 8.3 per cent.

On Wednesday, China’s government promised steps to boost domestic consumption as a driver of the economy.

Gold prices continued to back off after an attempt at a rally Tuesday. The June contract on the Nymex fell $10.80 to US$1,376.60 an ounce, adding to a $140 tumble on Monday.

There have been a few reasons advanced for the steep drop in gold prices that started last week, including the prospect of troubled eurozone countries selling off part of their gold reserves to tackle debt problems.

Analysts also point to speculation that the U.S. Federal Reserve could end its stimulus program later this year. Its quantitative easing program involves printing money to buy US$85 billion of bonds every month and the removal of such stimulus would serve to lower inflation worries.

On the earnings front, Bank of America’s profit soared to $2.3 billion or 20 cents a share in the first quarter, up nearly seven times from a year ago. That missed the expectations of analysts polled by FactSet, who had expected 22 cents per share.

Revenue was up down eight per cent to $23.9 billion after stripping out an accounting charge, but it beat analysts’ expectations of $23.3 billion. Bank of America shares lost 3.5 per cent in pre-market trading.

Yahoo Inc. earned $390 million, or 35 cents per share, in the first three months of the year. Earnings ex-items came in at 38 cents, beating expectations for 25 cents.

After subtracting ad commissions, Yahoo’s revenue stood at $1.07 billion, about $30 million below analyst projections and its shares lost 1.74 per cent in pre-market trading.

European bourses were well in the red as London’s FTSE 100 index lost 0.73 per cent, while Frankfurt’s DAX and the Paris CAC 40 dropped about 1.7 per cent.

Earlier in Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.2 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.5 per cent, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 advanced 1.1 per cent and South Korea’s Kospi rose less than 0.1 per cent.