North American markets may get a boost Monday from news of a big merger in the technology sector. Oracle Corp. and Sun Microsystems said Monday they have reached a friendly takeover deal in which Oracle will pay US$9.50 a share in cash to acquire Sun.

The deal is worth approximately US$7.4 billion.

Here at home Canadian investors acquired $2.9 billion of foreign securities in Feburary, Statistics Canada said Monday. The acquisitions were made up of equity and money market instruments.

Foreign investors added $6.1 billion of Canadian securities to their portfolios in February, investing in both bonds and equities, StatsCan said.

The Canadian dollar opened at US81.45¢, down 0.85 of a cent from Friday’s close.

In today’s earnings news, Bank of America’s first-quarter net income more than tripled as the bank said its Merrill Lynch acquisition contributed more than US$3 billion to its bottom line.

Net income of the bank rose to US$2.81 billion, or 44¢ per share, from US$1.02 billion, or 23¢, a year earlier. Net revenue more than doubled to US$35.76 billion.

Drug maker Eli Lilly reported a 23% jump in its earnings.

In other banking news, Swiss bank UBS AG said it will sell its Brazilian unit banck investment bank’s original owners.

In commodities news, light, sweet crude fell US$2.10 to US$48.23 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

International stocks were mixed, with gains in Asia and declines in Europe.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 edged up 0.2%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng climbed 1% to 15,750.91.

In afternoon trading, Britain’s FTSE 100 fell one%, Germany’s DAX index fell 2.4%, and France’s CAC-40 fell two%.

Toronto stocks rallied again on Friday shaking off an $850 million writedown by Royal Bank of Canada.

The S&P/TSX composite added 94.28 points, or 1.01%, to close at 9,437.65.

The benchmark index was up 2.7% on the week, marking its sixth-straight week of gains.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index gained 7.10 points, or 0.72%, to end at 989.23.

In New York, U.S. stocks rose slightly on better-than-expected quarterly results at General Electric and Citigroup.

The Dow Jones industrial average advanced 5.90 points, or 0.07%, to 8,131.33. The S&P 500 rose 4.30 points, or 0.50%, to 869.60. The Nasdaq composite index added 2.63 points, or 0.16%, to 1,673.07.

For the week, the S&P 500 rose 1.5%, the Dow climbed 0.6% and the Nasdaq gained 1.2%.

IE