March 11 (Reuters) - Futures for Canada's main stock index tumbled on Monday, tracking losses in their Wall Street peers, ahead of a key inflation reading from the United States later this week that could test expectations of interest rate cuts.
March futures on the S&P/TSX index were down 0.5% at 6:59 a.m. ET (10:59 GMT).
Investors awaited a February reading of consumer prices (CPI) in the U.S., due on Tuesday, that will provide some more insight into inflation in the country.
The report follows a mixed reading of non-farm payrolls data last week, which showed some signs of softening in the labor market and kept bets of an interest rate cut from the U.S. Federal Reserve in June intact.
A domestic employment report for February also showed slowing wage growth and increasing unemployment. The Bank of Canada held its interest rates steady on March 6 on account of underlying inflation.
On the commodities front, gold prices held steady after hitting a series of record highs in the previous week, while copper prices were buoyed by lower inventories, signs of supply tightness and a weaker U.S. dollar.
Canada's materials sector, which includes mining stocks, outperformed its peers last week and has risen for seven straight sessions.
Focus will also be on the heavyweight energy sector as oil prices ticked lower.
The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index (.GSPTSE), opens new tab ended down 0.3% on Friday, but notched its fourth straight weekly gain - the longest weekly winning streak since April 2023.
In corporate news, the Romanian government said on Friday it won an arbitrage trial filed by Gabriel Resources (GBU.V), opens new tab which wanted compensation after its plan to build Europe's largest open-cast gold mine in western Romania had failed.
COMMODITIES AT 6:59 a.m. ET
Gold futures : $2,184.5; -0.1%
US crude : $77.83; -0.2%
Brent crude : $81.9; -0.2%
Reporting by Purvi Agarwal in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore
