North American stocks will likely rise at the open ahead of a speech from U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

Bernanke is scheduled to address the Economics Club of New York this evening. Investors will be paying close attention to his remarks, which come one week before of an official decision from the Fed on U.S. interest rates.

In this morning’s economic news, Statistics Canada said foreign investors acquired $3 billion of Canadian securities in January, largely reversing their divestment in December.

Meanwhile, Canadians continued to invest heavily in foreign securities, buying $3.7 billion worth over the month.

In early trading, the Canadian dollar was down 0.35 of a cent at US85.95¢

In earnings news, tech-bellwether Oracle will release its quarterly results after the close of trading.

In Europe, another rally for insurance stocks lifted markets, with the U.K. FTSE 100 up 0.3%. Prudential rejected a US$30 billion stock-swap proposal from Aviva, while shares of Zurich Financial extended Friday’s gains even as St. Paul Travelers publicly denied it’s in talks to buy the Swiss insurer.

Tokyo’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index gained 285.07 points, or 1.74%, to finish the day’s trading at 16,624.80 points – its highest finish since February 7.

In Hong Kong,the blue-chip Hang Seng Index advanced 128.29 points, or 0.81%, to 15,929.95.

On Friday, Toronto stocks closed lower as the market was weighed down by the energy and financial indexes.

The S&P/TSX composite index fell 84.92, or 0.70%, to finish 12,000.73 in a volatile trading day. Yesterday, the market closed 12,085.65.

The S&P/TSX Venture composite index gained 26.22, or 0.99%, to 2,664.73.

In New York, markets made modest gains, despite worrisome corporate news from GM and AIG Inc.

The Dow Jones industrials rose 26.41 points to close at 11,279.65, the Nasdaq Composite Index closed 6.92 points higher at 2,306.48, and the S&P 500 Index rose 1.92 points to 1,307.25.

For the week, the Dow Jones rose 1.8%, while the Nasdaq and the S&P each gained 2%.