North American stock markets may open flat Monday as the quarterly earnings reporting season rolls along, and oil prices fell.

In today’s economic news, the Canadian economy increased 0.4% in February as energy production returned to a more normal level, Statistics Canada reported.

Excluding oil and gas extraction and utilities, economic activity grew 0.2%.

The Canadian dollar opened at US89.66¢, up 0.05 of a cent.

South of the border, U.S. consumer spending grew 0.3%, slower than expected, as personal income increased 0.7%. An inflation gauge watched closely by the Federal Reserve Board moderated to a 2.1% annual rate.

Crude-oil futures slipped 34¢ to US$66.12 a barrel. Gold futures slipped US$1.10 to US$680.70 an ounce.

In today’s earnings news, RadioShack and Humana topped analyst forecasts, while National City and Pitney Bowes missed estimates.

Verizon Communications said its net profit rose 8.4% amid asset sales.

Cameco disclosed that it misspoke in its weekend quarterly earnings release when it said earnings in the current quarter will be about 50% higher than in the first quarter. Revenue – not profit – is expected to rise by half over the weak January-March result, the world’s biggest uranium miner said.

In M&A news, Yahoo agreed to buy the 80% it didn’t already own of Right Media, an exchange for online advertising, for US$680 million in cash and stock.

Key European indexes were mixed.

Tokyo’s stock market was closed for a national holiday.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index fell 207.52 points to 20,318.98. Investors sold stocks after China’s central bank said Sunday it will raise banks’ reserve requirement ratio by another half of a percentage point to 11 per cent for most commercial banks.

Toronto stocks rose Friday, as continued strength in resource prices boosted the energy and materials sectors.

The S&P/TSX composite index moved up 34.49, or 0.25%, to 13,632.01.

Bank of Montreal fell $1.27, or 1.78%, to $70 after the bank unexpectedly announced that it had lost as much as $450 million on natural gas trading.

The S&P TSX Venture Exchange gained 13.70, or 0.42%, to 3,298.79.

In New York, markets closed mixed after a strong week of gains.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 15.44, or 0.12%, to 13,120.94, the Nasdaq moved up 2.75, or 0.11%, to 2,557.21, the S&P500 index ended virtually flat, down 0.18, or 0.01%, to 1,494.07.

For the week, the Dow moved up 1.2%, the Nasdaq 1.2%, and the S&P500 up 0.7%.