Source: The Canadian Press

Rising oil and metal prices could take the Toronto stock market higher Monday following a solid advance last week.

The Canadian dollar was up 0.38 cent to US97.42 cents.

The TSX gained three per cent last week following earnings reports from Bank of Montreal (TSX:BMO) and TD Bank (TSX:TD) which beat expectations while commodity stocks benefitted from higher prices.

U.S. futures pointed to a positive start to the trading week with the Dow Jones industrial futures ahead 19 points to 10,564, the Nasdaq futures were up 1.75 points to 1,887.25 while the S&P 500 futures gained 1.9 points to 1,138.4.

Oil prices continued to advance as investors were encouraged by news Friday that China plans to extend a stimulus package in hopes of helping the economy grow eight per cent this year. They also got a lift from U.S. employment data Friday that showed far fewer job losses in February than expected.

The April crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange gained 42 cents to US$81.92 a barrel.

Oil has soared about 18 per cent since Feb. 5 as investors become more convinced a growing global economy will boost crude demand.

Some analysts, however, said that the current rise in prices was driven by technical factors such as investors’ positions in the market, not a real rise in oil consumption.

Meanwhile, the April gold contract on the Nymex was up 80 cents to US$1,136 an ounce and May copper added three cents to US$3.44 a pound.

In economic news, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts reached 196,700 units in February, up from 185,400 units in January.

CMHC said the gain was concentrated in the multiple starts segment, particularly in Toronto.

A subsidiary of China’s largest utility company is planning to buy a 10 per cent stake in Quadra Mining Ltd. (TSX:QUA) for $151.6 million. The two companies will also create a joint venture mining company.

The Vancouver-based copper and gold producer also reported a US$46.6-million profit in the fourth quarter.

Investors also took in major American acquisition news as American International Group said it will sell its overseas life and health insurance unit for US$15.5 billion to MetLife Inc.

AIG owes the U.S. government almost US$130 billion in bailout funds and will use proceeds from the deal with MetLife to reduce its debt.

Concerns about Greece’s budgetary difficulties continued to subside Monday. The government passed a series of austerity measures at the end of last week which are aimed at slashing the Greek budget deficit by four percentage points this year from 12.7 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product.

At the same time, indications that Germany and France will establish a European Monetary Fund — a European version of the International Monetary Fund — to prevent similar Greek-style problems in the future, helped to shore up sentiment.

Overseas, London’s FTSE 100 index inched up 0.06 per cent and Frankfurt’s DAX gained 0.22 per cent.

Earlier, most Asian markets surged as they had their first chance to respond to Friday’s data that showed the U.S. unemployment rate held steady at 9.7 per cent in February with only 36,000 jobs lost. The consensus in the markets was for a modest uptick in the unemployment rate and a 60,000 drop in nonfarm payrolls.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average rose 2.1 per cent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped two per cent.