North American stock markets look set to rise at Wednesday’s open and oil prices continue their retreat.

Crude oil futures fell Wednesday ahead of the release of fresh U.S. petroleum inventory data. Ahead of the report, light sweet crude for May delivery was down 35¢ at US$55.69 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by late morning in Europe.

In today’s economic news, Statistics Canada said construction activity could intensify in the coming months as the value of building permits issued by municipalities hit its third highest level on record in February.

Across-the-board increases in every component of both residential and non-residential sectors fuelled a 13.5% surge in permits to $5.06 billion. This followed an 11.1% decline in January.

It was the third time in the last four months that permits surpassed the $5-billion mark.

In earnings news, Research In Motion stock fell in after-hours trading Tuesday maker of the BlackBerry wireless e-mail products issued financial results and guidance that were below analysts’ estimates.

The selloff followed RIM’s announcement that it generated lower fourth-quarter revenues than analysts expected and reported a loss of US$2.6 million after taking into account its previously announced $450 million legal settlement with NTP Inc., which holds patents to some to the technology used in the BlackBerry.

On Tuesday falling energy and mining shares pushed Toronto stocks into the red, while falling oil prices and soothing words from Alan Greenspan gave a boost to New York indices.

At close, Toronto’s S&P/TSX composite index was off 11.83 or 0.12% to 9,619.07, while the TSX Venture Exchange lost 13.92 points or 0.74% to 1,872.36

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average added 37.32 points or 0.36% to 10,458.46. The Nasdaq gained 8.25 or 0.41% at 1,999.32, while the S&P 500 index advanced 5.27 points or 0.45% to 1,181.39.