Stocks are expected to open mixed Monday amid news of plant closures by General Motors.

General Motors announced plans to cut 30,000 manufacturing jobs and close nine North American facilities by 2008 as part of an effort to get production in line with demand.

Over 3,500 job in Canada will be affected as GM plants in Oshawa and St. Catharines, Ont., will shut down.

The third shift at GM Canada’s Number 1 plant in Oshawa will be cancelled in the second half of 2006, while the Number 2 plant will be closed in 2008.

The St. Catharines powertrain plant on will cease production in 2008.

In today’s economic news, Statistics Canada said lower demand for motor vehicles drove down total retail sales by 0.9% in September to $30.9 billion.

South of the border, the October Conference Board of Leading Indicators is slated to be released at 10:00 ET. Wall Street expects a rise of 0.7%, up from the previous slide of 0.7%.

Crude-oil prices were unchanged at US$56.50 a barrel in early trading Monday.

Overseas, the Nikkei 225 continued to post gains, closing 1.5% higher at 14,623.12. The FTSE 100 in London was 0.7% recently as most European markets edged higher.

On Friday, Toronto stocks edged down, as a drop in the energy sector offset gains in the information technology group

The S&P/TSX composite index finished down 10.98, or 0.10%, to 10,722.10.

The junior S&P/TSX venture exchange finished up 7.65, or 0.38%, to 2,028.42.

In New York, acquisitions news from Cisco Systems and Swiss Re, which is buying GE’s insurance business, plus a positive earnings report from Hewlett-Packard lifted markets.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 44.43 points, or 0.41%, at 10,764.65.

The S&P500 Index was up 5.47 points, or 0.44%, at 1,248.27, while the Nasdaq composite index was up 6.61 points, or 0.30%, at 2,227.07. Both indices closed at four-and-a-half-year highs.

For the week, the Dow gained 0.8%, the S&P500 was up 1.1%, and the Nasdaq also rose 1.1%.