The Canadian Press

North American stock markets headed for a higher open Monday morning following sharp losses last week amid a surprise profit from Ford Motor Co. and gains in oil prices.

The Dow Jones futures gained 36 points to 9,700, the Nasdaq futures were ahead 4.25 points to 1,669.75 and the S&P futures advanced 4.8 points to 1,037.8.

The Canadian dollar headed up 0.08 of a cent to US92.51¢ after falling 1.29¢ on Friday on a combination of a higher U.S. dollar and weak commodity prices.

The energy sector should benefit from higher crude prices. The December crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange gained 73¢ to US$77.73 a barrel.

Metal prices were mixed as the December gold contract on the Nymex moved up US$13.90 to US$1,054.30 an ounce while December copper was unchanged at US$2.955 a pound.

Market sentiment was improved as Ford reported that gains in market share, cost cuts and the U.S. government’s Cash for Clunkers program led to a US$997 million profit in the third quarter.

Ford says it now expects to be “solidly profitable” in 2011. Previously the automaker said it would be break-even or better and its shares were up more than 6% in pre-market trading in New York.

The market appeared to take in stride news that U.S. commercial lender CIT Group Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection on Sunday after a debt-exchange offer to bondholders failed. The filing, one of the biggest in U.S. corporate history, did not come as a surprise, as the lender has been struggling for months to restructure its debt.

North American markets ended October trading with big losses amid the latest round of doubts about the strength of an economic recovery.

Traders were concerned that the 3.5% growth in the U.S. economy in the third quarter was driven largely by government stimulus efforts.

And on Friday, Statistics Canada surprised traders in announcing the Canadian economy shrank by 0.1% in August following a flat showing in July.

Disappointing U.S. consumer sentiment confidence and home sales data also led to a loss of just over 4% last week on the TSX, its first monthly loss since February, while the Dow industrials shed 2.6% last week.

This week, economic reports, including monthly employment data for the U.S. and Canada on Friday, will offer investors a glimpse at the fourth quarter and be pivotal in determining where the market heads during the final months of the year. The Federal Reserve will also weigh in on the economy after the conclusion of a two-day policy meeting on Wednesday.

Among Monday’s economic reports, investors will take in the latest reading on the U.S. manufacturing sector. The Institute for Supply Management’s index is expected to read 53 in October, compared with 52.6 in September. A reading above 50 indicates growth. If economists are right, it would be the third straight month of growth after 18 months of contraction.

Also due Monday is the National Association of Realtors’ index of pending home resales for September. Analysts are expecting the index to remain unchanged from August, which was the best month for the index since March 2007.

And a report on construction spending is expected to show a slight decline in September following a rise in August.

It’s also a heavy earnings week in Canada.

Uranium miner Cameco Corp. (TSX:CCO) reported that net income rose to $172 million or 44¢ per share in the third quarter, up from $135 million or 39¢ per share in the same period of 2008. Adjusted net income was $104 million or 26¢ per share, down from $127 million or 37¢ per share in the third quarter of 2008. Revenue was $694 million, down from $729 million.

On Friday, Cameco said it has resumed draining its flooded Cigar Lake project and expects to have the mine pumped out sometime next year.

Overseas, worries that the economic recovery is faltering led to a loss of 2.3% on Japan’s key Nikkei 225 stock average while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index lost 0.6%.

European bourses were mainly higher following the release of a survey showing that the manufacturing sector in the 16 countries that use the euro expanded in October for the first time in a year and a half.

The monthly purchasing managers index — a broad gauge of business activity — for the euro area rose to 50.7 from September’s 49.3. Any reading above 50 indicates that the sector is growing.

@page_break@A similarly encouraging picture emerged with equivalent British data. The PMI for October spiked to 53.7 from 49.9 in September. October’s reading represented the fastest pace of growth since November 2007.

London’s FTSE 100 index gained 0.49%, Frankfurt’s DAX was flat while the Paris CAC 40 was up 0.46%.