Source: The Canadian Press

Resource stocks will likely push the Toronto stock market to a lower open Friday as oil and metal prices backed off on worries about deteriorating economic conditions in the United States.

Meanwhile, the Canadian dollar was down sharply for a second day amid a stronger U.S. dollar and data showing rising inflation during July. The currency was off 0.88 of a cent to 95.35 cents US as Statistics Canada reported that the country’s annual inflation rate rose 1.8% year over year in July. That followed a 1% rise in June. The agency said new harmonized sales taxes in Ontario and British Columbia and a higher HST rate in Nova Scotia affected consumer prices in July.

U.S. futures also pointed to a lower session, adding to losses on Thursday after figures showed an unexpected rise in weekly U.S. jobless claims to half a million and a big drop in manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia region.

The Dow Jones industrial futures lost 46 points to 10,189, the Nasdaq futures shed 5.5 points to 1,814.5 and the S&P 500 futures declined 5.4 points to 1,065.9.

The worry is that substantially lower economic growth in the U.S. will derail the global recovery from recession.

“This double whammy of deteriorating U.S. data has dealt a significant body blow to investor sentiment, and reinforced fears about a double dip recession,” said Michael Hewson, an analyst at CMC Markets.

Worries about the pace of the U.S. economic recovery helped push oil prices below US$75 a barrel.

The September crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange declined $1.08 to US$73.35 a barrel after declining just shy of $1 Thursday as data earlier in the week showed oil supplies fell far less than expected last week.

Demand worries also weakened metal prices with the September copper contract in New York down seven cents to US$3.25 a pound.

The December gold contract in New York was off $9.10 to US$1,226.30 an ounce.

Asian markets also lost ground with Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average closing down 2%.

The Shanghai Composite Index shed 1.7% with stocks additionally pressured by Beijing’s announcement earlier in the week that it would examine the finances of heavily indebted local government agencies set up to invest in real estate and infrastructure.

And Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gave up 0.4%.

London’s FTSE 100 index lost 0.53%, Frankfurt’s DAX fell 0.96% while the Paris CAC 40 was down 1.22%.

In corporate news, Calgary-based farm products firm Agrium Inc. said Thursday it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Australian grain marketer AWB Ltd. for $1.1 billion, pushing out a competing bidder. Agrium (TSX:AGU) said AWB’s board has deemed its bid superior to an earlier takeover proposal from Australian grain handler GrainCorp Ltd. That offer was reportedly worth around $829 million.

Suncor Energy Inc. (TSX:SU) says it is experiencing an outage at one of its hydrogen reformer units at the oil sands base plant in Fort McMurray, Alta. Canada’s biggest integrated energy company reported Friday that an assessment of the unit is underway to determine the cause of the outage and timing for when it will restart.