Stocks may climb at the open Wednesday, a day after the U.S. Federal Reserve signaled that it likely will keep raising interest rates for months.

The minutes from the Fed’s December meeting, released yesterday, suggested the U.S. central bank is likely to keep raising rates because of wariness about inflation. The news helped send North American markets sharply lower.

In today’s economic news, Statistics Canada said prices for manufactured goods at the plant gate continued to decline in November, posting their largest monthly drop since May 2003. Raw materials prices also receded compared with October, as prices were down for crude oil.

Prices charged by manufacturers, as measured by the Industrial Product Price Index (IPPI), fell for the third month in a row on a monthly basis. Lower prices for motor vehicles, petroleum, lumber, and pulp and paper products were the main sources of the monthly decline.

StatsCan said the 12-month change in the IPPI was 4.1%, down from October’s increase of 5.5%.

South of the border, the December ISM non-manufacturing index will be released at 10 ET. Analysts expect the index, which measure activity in the U.S. service sector, to fall to 58.5 from 61.3.

On Tuesday, falling gold prices helped Canadian markets begin the year on a triple-digit down note, while U.S. markets finished in the red for the second day in a row as the Fed’s comments about inflation spooked investors.

At close, Toronto’s S&P/TSX composite index lost 103.67 points or 1.12% to 9,142.98. The resources-heavy TSX Venture Exchange slid 37.85 points or 2.07% to 17,87.62. Volume on the TSX was 237.3 million shares.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average slid 98.65 points or 0.92% at 10,630.78. The Nasdaq composite index posted its biggest daily loss in five months, sliding 44.29 points or 2.06% at 2,107.86, while the S&P 500 index was off 14.03 points or 1.17% at 1,188.05.

The Canadian dollar was down more than a cent — 1.41¢ — to US81.78¢ as the U.S. dollar gained ground against other currencies.

Also yesterday IGM Financial Inc. said its Investors Group unit reported net sales of $217.9 million for the year, while its Mackenzie Financial Corp. subsidiary rang up net sales of $824.5 million.

CI Fund Management Inc. said its three divisions reported total net sales of $1.42 billion.

The Investment Funds Institute of Canada will release its estimates for December fund sales later today.