Source: The Canadian Press

The Toronto stock market headed for a weak open Thursday amid falling commodity prices and nervousness about Europe’s sovereign debt problems.

The Canadian dollar was lower as the greenback strengthened against a variety of currencies including the loonie and the euro. The Canadian currency was down 0.08 of a cent to 99.52 cents US.

U.S. futures futures were higher with the Dow Jones futures ahead 19 points to 11,434, the Nasdaq futures up 5.5 points to 2,207 and the S&P 500 futures gained 2.3 points to 1,234.

“A holiday mood is in the market right now,” said Jackson Wong, a vice president at Tanrich Securities.

“There’s no major news, so the market is on the weak side because there’s a lot of uncertainty still out there.”

Wong said sentiment was still overshadowed by Europe’s debt crisis, including the news Wednesday that Moody’s may downgrade Spain’s public debt.

Moody’s warning put Europe’s debt crisis back to the forefront of investors’ concerns. Following Tuesday’s similar warning on Belgium from rival agency Standard & Poor’s, investors are again nervous that the debt crisis will spread, particularly to Spain, following bailouts of Greece and Ireland so far this year.

Oil prices fell to near $88 a barrel despite a plunge in U.S. crude supplies that suggested demand may be recovering.

The U.S. Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration said Wednesday that crude inventories fell 9.9 million barrels last week, the largest drop since 2002. Analysts surveyed by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos., had forecast a drop of three million barrels.

The January crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange lost 37 cents to US$88.25 a barrel.

Metal prices also stepped back with the March copper contract on the Nymex down four cents to US$4.10 a pound while the February gold contract in New York lost $5.20 to US$1,381 an ounce.

In overseas trading, Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average edged up about 0.1%, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.3%, the Shanghai Composite index dipped 0.5% while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 1.3%.

In corporate news, investors digested news of sizable dividend payouts from two big Canadian corporations.

George Weston Ltd. (TSX:WN), the Toronto-based food processor and distributor and majority owner of the Loblaw (TSX:L) supermarket chain, said Wednesday it will pay a special one-time dividend totalling $1 billion to its shareholders. The payment will amount to about $7.75 per share for shareholders of record at the close of business on Jan. 18.

And Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. (TSX:AEM) said Wednesday it will increase its dividend to 16 cents per share per quarter or 64 cents US per year, up from its current payment of an annual dividend of 18 cents per share.

A number of Canadian firms have announced dividend increases in recent weeks, including National Bank (TSX:NA), Laurentian Bank (TSX:LB) and Canadian Western Bank (TSX:CWB).

Elsewhere, Travel company Transat A.T. Inc. (TSX:TRZ.B) says profits rose to $52.4 million in the fourth-quarter as it booked lower non-cash losses related to fuel hedging. Revenues were $778.6 million, up from $719.7 million.