North American stocks look to start the week on positive note.

This week brings three scheduled appearances by U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. He will make the first of those appearances Monday afternoon, with subsequent speeches on Tuesday and Thursday.

Last week, the Fed chief’s comments on inflation sparked a stock selloff, so investors will be looking for clues about the Fed’s rate-hiking program.

In today’s economic news, capacity use among Canadian industries edged down in the first quater of 2006 in the wake of the rising loonie and a decline in foreign demand for some manufactured goods, Statistics Canada said today.

Industries operated at 85.9% of their capacity between January and March, compared with 86.1% in the fourth quarter of 2005.

However, StatsCan said “rates have remained relatively stable over the past two years, and are holding at near-record levels of capacity use.”

The Canadian dollar opened at US90.66¢, up 0.21 of a cent.

In today’s earnings news, Wall Street brokerage Lehman Brothers said net income rose 47% on record revenue in capital markets and another strong quarter in investment banking.

Agrium Inc. cut its second-quarter earnings forecast to about US$1 a share, compared with earlier guidance of US$1.02 to US$1.12.

In M&A news, French insurance giant AXA is reported to be in exclusive talks to buy Credit Suisse Group’s Winterthur insurance unit, which is valued at more than US$8 billion.

Steel maker Arcelor said Monday that it has rejected Mittal Steel’s current offer, which values the company at around US$31 billion, because it undervalues the company. However, Arcelor said that its management board will meet again with Mittal if it improves the offer.

Crude-oil futures advanced 12¢ to US$71.75 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Overseas, European stocks were moderately lower on Monday. The U.K. FTSE 100 index fell 0.4% and the French CAC-40 fell 0.5%, while the German DAX Xetra 30 index eased 0.6%.

Major Asian markets ended mixed.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index rose 82.17 points, or 0.56 per cent, to finish at 14,833.01 points.

In Hong Kong, the blue-chip Hang Seng Index dipped a scant 7.25 points, or 0.05 per cent, to 15,621.4.

On Friday, Toronto stocks closed lower, as resource indices continued to move lower, ending a tough week for the senior exchange.

The S&P/TSX composite index fell 24.82, or 0.22%, to 11,390.70. For the week, the market was off 4.4%.

The S&P/TSX Venture composite index finished up 13.81 points, or 0.52%, to 2,654.48.

In New York,

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 46.90 points to 10,891.92, the Nasdaq composite index fell 10.26 points to 2,135.06 and the S&P 500 Index lost 5.63 points to 1,252.30.

On the week, the Dow fell 3.2%, the Nasdaq composite dropped 3.8% while the S&P 500 declined 2.8%.