North American markets are expected to open lower Monday, as investors brace for a rush of quarterly earnings reports.

In economic news, strong demand for trucks caused overall sales of new motor vehicles to for the second consecutive month, Statistics Canada reported today. StatsCan said February sales rose by 7.7% during the month.

According to preliminary figures from the auto industry, the first quarter of 2004 will be bolstered by a sales increase of approximately 3% in March.

In this morning’s earnings news, 3M’s net income rose 44% in the first quarter, and the company increased its earnings outlook for the year.

In other news, McDonald’s chairman and CEO Jim Cantalupo was struck by an apparent heart attack early on Monday and died, the company said.

The CFO of Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Cos. stepped down Monday as the company further downgraded estimates of its oil and gas reserves. Shell said it believed its new statement should close the controversy over reserves, which has badly shaken the energy giant.

The U.S. Justice Department said it is investigating claims that Echo Bay Mines of Vancouver, since purchased by Kinross Gold of Toronto, illegally paid terrorist groups at least US$1.7 million for security in the Philippines.

Asian markets closed lower overnight. Tokyo’s Nikkei fell 60.35 points to 11,764.21.

In Hong Kong, the blue-chip Hang Seng Index slipped 8.38 points, to 12,450.

On Friday, the Toronto S&P/TSX composite index closed up 58.18 points, or 0.67%, at 8,695.35 on volume of 219.4 million shares worth $3.1 billion. For the week, the benchmark index lost 1.6%.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index added 21.14 points, rising to 1,817.06.

In the U.S., the Dow Jones industrial average rose 54.51 points to 10,451.97, while the S&P 500 Index added 5.73 points to 1,134.57. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index slipped 6.43 points to 1,995.74.