Stock prices are higher on Wall Street, but are down slightly on Bay Street in early trading Tuesday.

Toronto’s S&P/TSX is down about four poiints,while the TSX Venture exchange is off about two points. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 60 points in the early going. The Nasdaq Composite Index is ahead 16 points and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Stock Index is up about 5 points.

The Canadian dollar is up 0.471 of a cent to US77.40¢.

Many on Bay Street looking ahead to Wednesday’s meeting of the Bank of Canada, which is expected to hike interest rates.

On Friday, North American markets finished the week on a down note as a sobering report from U.S. chip giant Intel Corp. kept stocks on both sides of the border in the red. For the week, though, markets were ahead, albeit slightly.

The S&P/TSX was down 44.44 points or 0.53% on Friday to 8344.42 — a gain of merely 0.12% on the week. The TSX Venture exchange was off 1.46 points or 0.1% to 1527.59.

The Dow dipped 30.08 points or 0.29% to 10260.20. For the week however, the Dow was up 0.6%, marking its fourth consecutive week of gains. The Nasdaq lost 28.95 points or 1.55% at 1844.48, thanks largely to Intel’s woes, but was up 1% on the week. The S&P 500 index fell 4.68 points or 0.42% to 1113.63; it finished the week ahead 0.5%.

Overseas on Tuesday, Tokyo’s Nikkei Stock Average of 225 issues rose 54.57 points, or 0.49% to 11,298.94.

The Nikkei rose after government data showed Monday that April-June corporate capital expenditures jumped 10.7% following a 10.1% rise in the January-March quarter.

In Hong Kong, the main Hang Seng Index edged up 31.70 points, or 0.24%, to 13,136.04. Investors continued to buy real estate stocks on optimism about the prospects of the Hong Kong property market, brokers said.

On Wednesday, the Bank of Canada is scheduled to make an announcement on key interest rates, and analysts are forecasting a quarter-point hike from 44-year lows – following the U.S. example of early August.

Scheduled reports this week include Canadian employment data, due Friday.

In corporate news, Wheaton River Minerals Ltd. says it will delay a planned spin-off of its silver holdings to avoid a costly conflict, but it is still opposing a US$1.7-billion takeover by Coeur d’Alene Mines. Wheaton and Chap Mercantile Inc. said Tuesday the closing of their deal to create Silver Wheaton has been rescheduled to Oct. 15, instead of Sept. 9. Idaho-based Coeur d’Alene, the world’s biggest silver miner, had sought a delay from the British Columbia Securities Commission.

Meanwhile, Statistics Canada said Tuesday that the value of building permits issued in July fell 11.4% to $4.8 billion from the record $5.4 billion set in June, as both the residential and non-residential sectors declined. However, July was still the second highest month on record.

A drop of nearly one-third in the value of multi-family permits issued vs the previous month drove the residential sector down 10.3% to $3.1 billion. Despite the decline, it was still the third-best month on record.

The growth in the institutional sector in July was more than offset by flagging demand for commercial permits, which led to a drop in non-residential projects (-13.3% to $1.7 billion). This was the second highest level for non-residential permits over the last 12 months.