U.S. stock futures rose Monday despite a series of disappointing earnings, as the U.S. dollar gained strength and oil prices lost ground.

One bright spot was HSBC Holdings, which disclosed US$3.2 billion in write-downs in its consumer finance business plus other impairments but said it expects to record larger first-quarter profit than a year earlier.

Crude-oil futures slipped 56¢ to US$125.40 a barrel in electronic action on profit-taking after last week’s trailblazing climb to record-high levels.

In today’s Canadian economic news, year-over-year growth in new housing prices slowed for a second consecutive month in March.

Contractors’ selling prices rose 6.1% between March 2007 and March 2008, a slightly slower pace than the 6.2% year-over-year increase posted in February 2008, Statistics Canada reported Monday.

Nationally, prices rose 0.2% between February and March.

The Canadian dollar opened at US99.42¢, off 0.02 cent from Friday’s close.

In maket news, Calgary-based EnCana Corp., one of the largest oil and gas companies in the world, is splitting into two corporate entities.

In a news release on Sunday, the company said its board of directors unanimously approved a proposal to create an integrated oilsands firm and a natural gas-focused exploration and production company.

In other earnings news, Home Capital Group Inc. reported a 19% rise in first-quarter profit on solid growth in its mortgage and credit-card lending.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average rose 0.6%.

The FTSE 100 was up 0.6% near midday in London. The German DAX was also up 0.6% while the Paris CAC-40 advanced 0.75%.

Toronto stocks finished lower Friday even though oil prices hit another record high.

The S&P/TSX composite index fell 86.80 points, or 0.59%, to close at 14,521.19.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index gained 24.56 points, or 0.97%, to 2,564.01.

In New York, U.S. stocks fell as the price of oil set another record and concerns about the financial sector flared up again after American International Group Inc, reported a massive loss.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 120.90 points, or 0.94%, to close at 12,745.88. The S&P 500 shed 9.40 points, or 0.67%, to end at 1,388.28, while the Nasdaq composite index slipped 5.72 points, or 0.23%, to 2,445.52.

For the week, all three indexes ended lower. The Dow lost 2.4%, the S&P 500 slid 1.8% and the Nasdaq tumbled 1.3%.