North American stocks may climb Tuesday morning as oil prices rise amid fresh attacks in the Mideast and investors digest another batch of earnings news.

In today’s economic news, the U.S. Labor Department said the June producer price index for finished goods rose by 0.5% on a seasonally adjusted basis, after increasing 0.2% in May. The core PPI for goods excluding food and energy costs increased 0.2% in June. The core rate climbed 0.3% in May. Wall Street economists had expected the overall PPI to rise 0.3% in June and that the core PPI would go up 0.2%.

There are no major economic data reports from Statistics Canada today.

The Canadian dollar opened at US88.14¢, up 0.13 of a cent.

Oil prices rebounded today after a steep drop Monday as continued fighting in the Mideast added more tension to a market already edgy about tight supplies.. Crude-oil futures rose 84¢ to YS$76.14 a barrel in early trading in New York.

In earnings news, Merrill Lynch posted record revenue amid strong performances in all major units, despite weakness in the stock market during the second quarter. Net income was up 44%.

Coca-Cola’s net income rose 6.6% in the second quarter, boosted by a gain from the sale of shares in the initial public offering of the soft-drinks maker’s Turkish bottling unit. Revenue rose 2.6% to $6.48 billion.

Johnson & Johnson’s second-quarter profit rose 9% as record sales and restrained spending on marketing and overhead costs offset higher research expenses.

After today’s close IBM and Yahoo report how they did in the last quarter.

Overseas, Heineken climbed after the Dutch brewer said sales of Premium Light in the U.S. are off to a better start than it had originally forecast.

After a three-day break, markets in Japan sold off sharply. The Nikkei average of 225 issues shed 408 points, or 2.75% to 14,437.24 points on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, its lowest since June 14.

European stock market losses were more modest, with the United Kingdom FTSE 100 down 0.5%.

Toronto stocks tumbled Monday, as investors bailed out of the energy, materials and financials sectors on falling commodity prices.

The S&P/TSX composite index lost 149.39 points, or 1.28%, to 11,480.62.

The S&P/TSX Venture composite index gave up 73.79 points, or 2.81%, to 2,556.73.

In New York, markets were mixed as investors remained nervous in light of conflict in the Middle East.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 8.01 points at 10,747.36, the Nasdaq composite index was up 0.37 point at 2,037.72, and the S&P 500 Index drifted down 1.71 points to 1,234.49.