North American markets are poised to open higher Tuesday, boosted by a modest rise in U.S. retail sales.

The U.S. Commerce Department said U.S. retail sales rose 0.5% in February as higher federal tax refunds helped boost consumer spending. Auto sales picked up after declining in the previous month. Sales excluding autos climbed 0.4%.

Economists had forecast, a 0.6% rise in overall sales and a 0.8% increase in non-auto sales.

Here at home, Statistics Canada said manufacturers rebounded in January with solid gains in shipments and orders, following a lacklustre finish to 2004.

The government agency said wide ranging increases contributed to a 3.0% surge in shipments to $51.5 billion in January, while new orders soared 7.1% and manufacturers’ backlog of unfilled orders jumped 5.2% ending a five-month slide.

In other economic news, crude oil futures prices rose above US$55 a barrel amid resistance to Saudi Arabia’s call for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to increase production quotas.

Light, sweet crude for April delivery rose 21¢ to US$55.16 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midday in Europe.

In today’s earnings news, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s net jumped 31% in the first quarter, helped by record revenue in the company’s investment-banking and capital-markets units.

The New York financial giant reported Tuesday its net income rose to US$875 million, or $2.91 a share, for the period ending Feb. 28, from US$670 million, or $2.21 a share, a year earlier

Technology stocks, powered by an 10% jump in price of Research In Motion Ltd., boosted the Toronto Stock Exchange on Monday, while U.S. markets got some good news from the biotech sector.

At close, the Toronto’s S&P/TSX composite index was up 23.92 points or 0.25% to 9,715.36, while the junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index lost 10.90 points or 0.55% to 1,977.29.

Wall Street’s Dow Jones industrial average advanced 30.15 points or 0.28% at 10,804.51. The tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 9.44 points or 0.46% at 2,051.44 and the S&P 500 index added 6.75 points or 0.56% to 1206.83.

The Canadian dollar was down 0.15 of a cent to US82.80¢ in late trading.

Toronto markets were fuelled by technology stocks, which jumped 2.49% thanks to the performance of RIM, whose shares jumped $7.02 or 9.63% to $79.95. The move came after the company and Yahoo Inc. announced a new relationship to provide Yahoo’s instant messaging service, Yahoo Messenger, to BlackBerry users.

Energy stocks also bounced back — gaining 0.38% — after oil prices reversed. The price of light, sweet crude for April delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange advanced 27¢ to US$54.70 despite a comment from the president of OPEC said that oil-producing countries may decide to increase production at this week’s meeting in Iran.