Investors are facing the crest of the third quarter earnings season. One third of the S&P 500 companies will be reporting this week, including a few of the key Dow Jones industrials.

The discount airlines, WestJet in Canada and Southwest in the U.S., reported healthy earnings increases this morning. Westjet earned 42¢ a share. This is their 27th consecutive quarter of profitability.

Also due out in Canada today are earnings from: Cogeco Cable, insurance firm Kingsway Financial Services and Methanex Corp., the world’s biggest producer of methanol.

In the U.S., Citigroup, the world’s largest financial group, started the day on the right foot with a record profit, up 20% from a year earlier. 3M is reporting higher than expected earnings,too.

Canadian investors are taking advantage of the strong Canadian dollar to buy foreign securities. They acquired $1.9 billion in foreign securities in August, with $1.6 billion going to stocks, says Statistics Canada.

Meanwhile, foreign investors reduced their holdings of Canadian securities by $7.2 billion in August. Foreign holdings of Canadian debt securities dropped $8.5 billion while foreign holdings of Canadian stocks rose by $1.3 billion.

The early news has boosted Wall Street futures. In Europe at midday, London’s FTSE index is up 0.36% in early action. Frankfurt’s DAX has gained 0.76%. Paris’s CAC 40 is up 0.38%.

The Asian exchanges did well during their Monday trading. Tokyo’s Nikkei Stock Average of 225 issues rose 123.82 points, or 1.12%, to 11,161.71 — its highest finish since June 2002.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index gained 103.4 points, or 0.86%, to 12,147.89, its highest close since August 2001.

These gains plus the positive outlook for the day stands in contrast from Friday’s finsih line when losses in the information technology and financial sectors dragged Toronto’s S&P/TSX composite index down 75.33 points to 7,717.47. The Dow fell 69.93 points to 9,721.79. The Nasdaq composite slid 37.78 points to 1,912.36.