Stocks are expected to open mixed Tuesday as the price of oil slips, and traders await U.S. consumer-confidence figures for September.

Light sweet crude oil for November fell 38¢ to US$65.44 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It had risen $1.63 to $65.82 in New York on Monday after U.S. President Bush said it was unclear how much oil production would be lost from hurricane Rita.

The U.S. Commerce Department is set to release the August new home sales report at 10 a.m. Eastern. Economists had forecast a 4.6% decrease to an annual rate of 1,345,000 single-family homes compared with a level of 1,410,000 in July.

The U.S. Conference Board is scheduled to release the September consumer-confidence report at 10:00 ET. Economists forecast a reading of 93.0 in September, down from the 105.6 reading in August, reflecting the impact of Hurricane Katrina.

U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan speaks this afternoon at the National Association for Business Economics’ conference in Chicago.

Yesterday Greenspan told the American Bankers Association, that although mortgage debt is rising, most Americans have built up so much equity in their homes that they could weather a price drop without serious harm.

“The vast majority of homeowners have a sizable equity cushion with which to absorb a potential decline in house prices,” Greenspan said.

There are no major economic announcements from Statistics Canada today.

The Canadian dollar opened at US85.16¢, down 0.14 of a cent.

Overnight in Asia, the Nikkei 225 index declined 82.59 points, or 0.62%, to close at 13,310.04 points on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The index surged 1.8% Monday to its highest level since June 2001.

In Hong Kong, the blue-chip Hang Seng index fell 84.43 points, or 0.55%, to 15,189.88.

Toronto stocks rose sharply Monday, spurred forward by higher prices for crude oil and gold. The S&P/TSX composite index finished up 101.16, or 0.93%, to 11,005.47.

The energy sector moved 2.50% higher, the biggest gainer on the day. Eight of the 10 TSX sub-groups closed in positive territory.

The December gold contract closed up $2.30 at US$469.50 an ounce on fears of inflation.

The financials group moved ahead 0.34% even as Finance Minister Ralph Goodale said a long-awaited paper that would set out the criteria needed for bank mergers won’t be available for several months. Shares in Bank of Nova Scotia gained 22¢, or 0.52%, to $42.72.

The junior S&P/TSX venture exchange slipped 4.80 points, or 0.23%, to finish at 2,069.93.

On Wall Street, U.S. markets closed slightly ahead after a volatile day as investors followed the price of crude.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 24.04 points to finish at 10,443.63, the S&P 500 closed up 0.34 points at 1,215.63 and the Nasdaq composite index rose 4.62 points to 2,121.46.