NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - U.S. futures were seeing red early Monday amid ominous words from Iran's leadership over the weekend which caused a spike in global oil prices and weakness in Europe.

Early Monday, futures pointed to a lower open at the start of trading.

U.S. crude prices climbed a dollar to over $73 on Monday after Iran hinted it might use oil flows as a weapon in its nuclear dispute with the West and problems at U.S. refineries spurred worries over fuel supplies. NYMEX light crude for July delivery traded 95 cents up at $73.28 a barrel, after hitting a high of $73.45. The market had gained $1.99 on Friday

On Sunday, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameni, warned the United States that any "misbehavior" directed at Iran would serve to disrupt Gulf energy shipments.

Further, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday that OPEC linchpin Saudi Arabia cut oil exports in April due to a drop in refinery demand.

Major markets in Europe were lower in early trading after last week's soft U.S. jobs report heightened concerns of an economic slowdown. A much weaker jobs report Friday suggested that the Federal Reserve may stop raising interest rates, but also raised some concern on Wall Street that the economy may be headed for a downturn.

Wall Street will watch closely for any hints about what direction the Fed could take with interest rates in the months ahead when Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke delivers a panel address in Washington Monday at the International Monetary Conference.

Major markets in Asia were mixed Monday, hurt by weakness in Japan. Hong Kong and Australia were trading higher.

Treasury prices were unchanged with the yield on the benchmark 10-year note steady at the 4.99 percent level reached late Friday. The euro hit a one-year high against the dollar Monday but the greenback traded slightly higher versus the yen.

In corporate news, a new study over the weekend showed Pfizer (Research)'s anti-cancer drug, Sutent, shrank tumors and stopped them from spreading in the lungs and kidneys of patients.

The Wall Street Journal, reported over the weekend that the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) is in serious discussions with TSX Group Inc., owner of the Toronto Stock Exchange, about forming an alliance and possibly acquiring TSX's Natural Gas Exchange. Citing people close to Nymex, the paper said Nymex is considering offering TSX 10 percent of its equity for full control of Calgary's Natural Gas Exchange in a swap valued at roughly $150 million.

Nymex, the largest U.S. futures exchange for energy and metals, and TSX, the world's biggest market for energy and metals stocks, also aim to jointly offer commodities equities and futures through a single electronic-trading screen, the report said.

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