North American stock markets are poised to open higher Tuesday ahead of another batch of quarterly earnings reports.

Third-quarter earnings season officially kicks off later today with results from Dow component Alcoa.

Oil prices rose Tuesday as traders watched for fresh signals on whether OPEC would trim output for the first time in nearly two years. Light sweet crude for November delivery rose 7¢ to US$60.07 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Canadian markets were closed Monday for the Thanksgiving holiday.

In today’s economic news, Canadian housing starts edged lower in September. Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said the number of housing starts was 211,300 units in September, down slightly from 216,600 units in August.

The Canadian dollar opened at US88.61¢, down 0.18 of a cent from Friday’s close.

In M&A news, Google Inc. bought YouTube Inc. for US$1.65 billion in stock on Monday.

European indexes rose in early action.

Most Asian markets recovered overnight from losses in the previous session, after on North Korea’s claim to have conducted its first nuclear test.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index rose 41.19 points, or 0.25%, to finish at 16,477.25 on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

In Hong Kong, the blue-chip Hang Seng Index rose 148.46 points, or 0.8%, to 17,823.7, recovering from Monday’s 1.3% decline.

On Monday, the Dow Jones industrial average briefly touched a new intraday trading high after the UN Security Council condemned North Korea over its claim of an underground nuclear test.

The Dow closed up 7.6 points, or 0.06%, to 11,857.81. The S&P 500 index rose 1.08, or 0.08%, to 1,350.66, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 11.78, or 0.51%, to 2,311.77.