The Canadian Press

Rising commodity prices should give the Toronto stock market some lift on Monday, the start of a shortened trading week.

U.S. futures pointed to a positive open with the Dow Jones industrial futures up 35 points to 10,833. The Nasdaq futures rose 10 points to 1,961.75 and the S&P 500 futures were ahead 4.8 points to 1,168.3.

The May crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 65 cents to US$80.65 a barrel.

Metal prices also ticked higher with the April bullion contract on the Nymex ahead $6.20 to US$1,110.50 an ounce while May copper rose eight cents to US$3.48.

The Canadian dollar rose 0.49 of a cent to US97.89.

Analysts thought that the agreement last week to arrange an eurozone aid package to Greece also improved sentiment going into this week’s trading.

“Last week’s agreement on an aid package to Greece helped return a semblance of confidence to markets and the euro,” said Mitul Kotecha, analyst at Credit Agricole CIB in London.

He warned, however, that the plan does not signal the all clear, noting that Portugal — another country with troubled finances — saw a downgrade.

The aid plan for Greece entails bilateral loans from other eurozone countries — with part of it from the International Monetary Fund — but only as a last resort, if Greece is unable to raise money on markets.

Greece said Monday that it will issue seven-year bonds, but declined to give a size for the offering or a precise date. It needs to raise about 20 billion euros (US$27 billion) by the end of April and the interest rate negotiated will be crucial.

Meanwhile, economic indicators were mostly positive in Europe, with a European Commission survey showing business and consumer confidence improved in March, suggesting the recovery has not yet stalled.

In Asia, stock markets mostly rose as stronger earnings from Chinese companies helped buoy sentiment.

Chinese shares led the region after mega lender China Construction Bank and refiner Sinopec reported robust profits for 2009, which supported optimism about growth prospects in the world’s third-largest economy.

The Shanghai index jumped 2% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.8%.

Japanese markets were modestly lower with Tokyo’s benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average down 0.3%.

London’s FTSE 100 index edged up 0.09%, Frankurt’s DAX gained 0.67% while the Paris CAC 40 was ahead 0.11%.

In corporate news, independent Chinese automaker Zhejiang Geely Holding Group signed a binding deal Sunday to buy Ford Motor Co.’s Volvo Cars unit for US$1.8 billion.

Ford, which bought Volvo Cars from AB Volvo in 1999 for US$6.45 billion, has been trying to sell the unit since late 2008 to focus its resources on managing its core Ford, Lincoln and Mercury brands.

Japanese automakers said their global production surged in February, as Toyota boosted output 83% from a year earlier to 655,180 despite an ongoing recall of several key models.

Main rival Honda also saw a significant boost, with production up 49.3% from a year earlier to 284,711 automobiles. Nissan’s production was up 72.4% to 270,366.

Meanwhile, investors will be looking at some top-drawer economic data this week, including key reports on Canada’s economic growth and the U.S. job situation.

The main event for Canada will be on Wednesday when Statistics Canada releases its snapshot of economic growth in January. It is expected the agency will report the Canadian gross domestic product grew by 0.5% during the month compared with December.

The U.S. jobs report is released Friday — when both Toronto and New York stock markets will be closed for the Good Friday holiday.

The U.S. Labour Department’s non-farm payrolls report for March is expected to show that the economy added about 190,000 jobs during the month.

That would be the first triple digit increase in jobs since November 2007, but the lion’s share of that March gain would be attributable to massive temporary hiring to conduct the U.S. census.