North American stock markets look set to rise Friday on expectations of continued, amid employment growth in Canada and the United States, and news that Warren Buffett could spend some of his cash on acquisitions as Berkshire Hathaway prepares for its annual meeting.

U.S. nonfarm payrolls climbed 138,000 last month after rising by 200,000 in March and 200,000 in February, both downwardly revised, the Labor Department said Friday.

Previous estimates showed a 211,000-job increase in March and a 225,000 gain in February. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.7% last month.

Canada’s jobless rate increased slightly to 6.4% in April as job growth slowed, Statistics Canada said Friday.

The rate rose a tenth of a percentage point from March, but still remained near 30-year lows.

Statistics Canada said 22,000 new jobs were added to the nation’s payrolls last month, significantly more than the 15,000 that economists had expected.

The Canadian dollar opened at US90.18¢, down 0.17 of a cent.

Crude-oil futures hovered around Thursday’s lows, up just 15 cents to US$70.09 a barrel in electronic trading. On the New York Mercantile Exchange Thursday, crude-oil prices tumbled $2.34 to US$69.94 a barrel, sliding below US$70 for the first time since mid-April.

On Wall Street investors may speculate on cash-rich companies ahead of Berkshire’s annual meeting this weekend, as Mr. Buffett makes no secret that he’d like to buy more companies. Among possible targets are San Francisco utility PG&E and Los Angeles automotive insurer Mercury General.

Overseas, European stocks rose. London’s FTSE-100 Index rose 0.5%, the Paris-based CAC-40 Index gained 0.8% and Frankfurt’s DAX Xetra 30 Index added 1.2%.

In Asia, Japanese and South Korean stock and currency markets were closed for Children’s Day. Hong Kong’s financial markets were closed for Buddha’s birthday.

Toronto stocks dropped Thursday, as falling oil prices led to a sell-off in energy stocks, but mining companies, on higher metals prices, continued to post gains.

The S&P/TSX composite index was down 70.28, or 0.58%, to 12,125.87.

The S&P/TSX Venture composite index gained 23.06, or 0.74%, to 3,137.74.

In New York, markets were higher on lower oil prices.

The Dow industrials rose 38.58 points to 11,438.86, the Nasdaq Composite Index was up 19.93 points at 2,323.90 and the S&P 500 Index ticked forward 4.40 points to 1,312.25.