North American markets are expected to open slightly higher Monday, as a lack of major news and a holiday in Europe likely will keep some investors on the sidelines.

At 10:00 ET, the U.S. Commerce Department is scheduled to release its measure of wholesale inventories for the month of April. Economists forecast a gain of 0.2%, after a rise of 0.5% in March.

Although there are no major economic releases from Statistics Canada this morning, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. reported that seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts was 197,900 in May, reflecting robust construction activity in the residential sector.

While the seasonally adjusted annual rate of urban multiple starts decreased 9.1% to 74,500 units in May 2003 compared with 82,000 units in April, the rate is in line with the average of 76,000 in 2002. Year-to-date actual urban multiple starts having increased 12.5% remain high compared with the same period in 2002.

The seasonally adjusted annual rate of urban single starts edged down 2.4% to 94,100 units in May from 96,400 the previous month. This was reflected in all regions of the country except Ontario where urban single starts increased 3.1%. In terms of actual starts, urban single starts year-to-date are 5.3% lower than for the same period of 2002.

Rural starts in May were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 29,300 units.


Stocks jumped in Asia overnight, as investors cheered better-than-expected U.S. economic news from Friday and a brighter outlook for global economies.

Tokyo stocks finished at their highest level this year as the Nikkei 225 Stock Average closed up 36.86 points at 8,822.73.

Gains in HSBC Holdings pushed Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index up 38.88 points to 9,733.51.

Meanwhile in Europe, several markets are closed for Pentecost. At midday London’s FTSE 100 is down 0.69%, Frankfurt’s DAX is off down 0.78% and Paris’s CAC 40 has slipped 0.98%.