North American stocks may open higher Tuesday after strong results from Coca-Cola suggested another day of positive earnings releases, and U.S. core inflation advanced just 0.1%.

Coca-Cola said first-quarter profit rose 14% to US$1.26 billion, or 54¢ a share.

In today’s economic news, U.S. consumer prices rose 0.6% in March, as the core CPI advanced just 0.1%, the U.S. Labor Department reported today.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Commerce Department said home construction unexpectedly climbed 0.8% last month.

Here at home, factory shipments edged down in February, Statistics Canada said today. The slight drop came in spite of the effects of a refinery fire in the petroleum and coal industry and a rail strike on the supply chain of manufacturers of transportation equipment, chemicals and non-metallic minerals.

Canadian manufacturers shipped goods worth an estimated $48.5 billion in February, down 0.2% from the previous month but 0.1% more than in February last year.

The Canadian dollar opened at US88.32¢, down 0.09 of a cent.

In other earnings news, Mellon Financial reported first-quarter net income climbed to 60¢ a share, up 20% from a year ago.

TD Ameritrade reported first-quarter earnings that fell below expectations, and lowered its outlook.

Other blue-chip firms due to report include Johnson & Johnson and International Business Machines Corp. Results from Internet stalwart Yahoo Inc. are due after the close.

In M&A news, Bell Canada parent BCE confirmed it’s talking to a consortium of pension funds about a possible sale and taking the firm off the stock market.

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board, who together would be majority shareholders, and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. are the four partners forming the consortium.

Oil prices firmed, with the May-dated light crude contract adding 47 cents to stand at US$64.08 a barrel.

Key European indexes dropped in early action.

Asian markets closed mixed.

In Tokyo, the benchmark Nikkei 225 index fell 100.85 points, or 0.57%, to finish at 17,527.45 points on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index rose 31.08 points, or 0.2%, to 20,788.61.

Toronto stocks soared to new record highs on Monday as mining shares got a lift from firm metal prices and a wave of merger activity.

The S&P/TSX composite index finished up 81.36 points, or 0.6%, at 13,659.98, a record closing high, after hitting a record high of 13,667.12 earlier in the session.

Algoma shares jumped $1.33, or 2.5%, to $55.45 after India’s Essar Global said on Sunday it would buy Algoma for $1.85 billion.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite inde was ahead 30.33 points to 3,349.73.

In New York, stocks rallied as Citigroup results, a deal for student lender Sallie Mae and upbeat retail data suggested a strong economy.

The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 108.33 points, or 0.86%, to end at 12,720.46. The S&P 500 jumped 15.62 points, or 1.08%, to finish at 1,468.47. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index gained 26.39 points, or 1.06%, to close at 2,518.33.