U.S. stock index futures rose on Tuesday after Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs Group reported its quarterly profit.

Goldman said quarterly earnings fell 11% as investment banking activity slowed and trading profits fell, but the results beat analyst expectations.

The largest U.S. investment bank reported net income of US$2.09 billion, or US$4.58 a share, for the fiscal second quarter ended May 31, down from US$2.33 billion, or US$4.93 a share, a year earlier.

In today’s economic news, non-residents’ demand for Canadian securities continued to heat up, as substantial acquisitions of Canadian debt instruments in April drove foreign investment to its highest level since November 2006.

Statistics Canada reported that non-residents acquired $7.1 billion worth of Canadian debt instruments in April, reaching the highest level over the past 12 months with over three-quarters invested in bonds.

At the same time, Canadian investors added sizeable amounts of foreign instruments to their portfolios, in particular equities, as global stock markets strengthened. Canadians bought $1.6 billion worth of foreign bonds in April, StatsCan said.

South of the border, U.S. producer prices soared in May at their fastest pace in six months, a government report showed, led by higher energy and food prices.

The producer price index for finished goods rose 1.4% on a seasonally adjusted basis in May, the biggest rise since November, the U.S. Labour Department said today. They rose 7.2% compared to May 2007.

The core index, which excludes food and energy items, climbed 0.2% on the month and 3% from one year ago, matching the biggest annual increase since 1991.

Meanwhile, U.S. housing starts took another tumble last month as April’s surprise rise was revised lower. The U.S. current-account deficit widened as expected in the first quarter

U.S. industrial production figures will follow at 9:15 ET.

Oil futures dropped 98¢ to US$133.63 a barrel.

In business news, BCE Inc. and its bondholders will meet at the Supreme Court of Canada on today to square off over the largest leveraged buyout in the world.

The bondholders, which include TD Asset Management, CIBC and Manulife Financial Corp., will argue they are not being treated fairly in the $52-billion takeover by a group of investors led by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.

The buyout of the telecommunications giant includes about $34 billion in new debt financing.

Overseas, inflation in Britain hit 3.3% in May, the highest annual rate in 11 years, the government said Tuesday, putting more pressure on the Bank of England to keep prices under control.

In London, the FTSE 100 Index gained 1.5% to 5,883.50, the German DAX 30 Index climbed 1.3% to 6,818.70 and the French CAC-40 index picked up 0.9% to 4,699.83.

In Asia, Asian markets ended mostly lower Tuesday on concerns over oil-price volatility, but Hong Kong eked out gains on bargain-hunting.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average ended flat at 14,348.37.

In China, the mainland’s Shanghai Composite Index, ended down 2.8% at 2,794.75.

Hong Kong’s market bucked the regional trend, as bargain-hunting in Chinese telecommunications companies lifted the Hang Seng Index 0.12% to 23,057.99.

The Toronto Stock Exchange’s main index rose sharply on Monday, boosted by record commodity prices and gains in the financial and tech sectors.

The S&P/TSX composite index rallied 165.82 points, or 1.12%, at end at 14,944.28. Eight of the 10 main TSX sectors advanced.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index slipped 3.33 points, or 0.13%, to end at 2,636.07.

In New York, technology stocks rose as blue-chip stocks slipped.

The Dow Jones industrial average I slipped 38.27 points, or 0.31%, to 12,269.08. The S&P 500 edged up 0.11 of a point, or 0.01%, to 1,360.14.

But the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index gained 20.28 points, or 0.83%, to 2,474.78.