North American markets may open lower Friday morning as oil prices rise and Canadians head into the Victoria Day long weekend.

Canadian markets will be closed Monday.

Crude-oil prices reversed course earlier today, climbing 47¢ to US$47.39 a barrel. The rise came as the president of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said that there was no reason for the producer group to trim oil output even as rising crude inventories put pressure on oil prices.

Meanwhile, higher prices for gasoline, fuel oil and lettuce helped push up the annual inflation rate to 2.4% in April, Statistics Canada said today.

That’s just a bit higher than the 2.3% inflation rate in March.

The core inflation rate, which excludes volatile food and energy costs and is closely watched by the Bank of Canada, slipped a bit in April.

StatsCan said core inflation was 1.7% last month, down from 1.9% in March.

That could help the Bank of Canada decide to leave its key policy interest rate unchanged at 2.5% at its next schedule rate announcement next Wednesday.

In a separate release, StatsCan said retail sales edged up 0.2% in March to $30.4 billion, as weaker spending in half of all retail sectors almost completely offset the gains in the other half.

The government agency added that sales advanced 2.4% in the first quarter of 2005, thanks to robust spending by shoppers in January and February.


The Canadian dollar opened slightly higher Friday as election fever subsided and the inflation rate moved up before a holiday long weekend.

As for stock markets, global indicators were mixed near the end of a week that featured major index gains.

The Canadian dollar opened at US79.54¢, up 0.16 of a cent, after the Liberal government survived a key budget vote in the Commons late Thursday, ending the possibility of an imminent election call.

The are no major U.S. economic data scheduled for release Friday.

However, U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Greenspan speaks at 12:30 ET on energy at the Economic Club of New York luncheon.

Toronto stocks chalked up a fourth straight day of solid gains Thursday.

The S&P/TSX composite index gained 61.94 points, or 0.66%, to close at 9,469.78. Volume was 206 million shares.

Eight of the 10 TSX main groups advanced .


The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite rose 4.27 points to 1,598.10

On Wall Street, U.S. markets ended modestly higher. as oil prices hovered around 3-month lows and economic data painted a mixed picture.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 28.74 points, or 0.27%, to 10,493.19 as the blue chips rallied on lower oil prices.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index gained 11.93 points, or 0.59%, to end the day at 2,042.60. The broader S&P 500 advanced 5.52 points, or 0.47%, to end at 1,191.08.