North American stocks are pointing to a flat open Tuesday following a three-day break, with renewed weakness in crude-oil prices.

Crude-oil futures fell 72¢ to $68.47 a barrel early Tuesday following the Labour Day holiday, which usually marks the end of the summer driving season.

The Canadian dollar opened at US90.06¢, down 0.48 of a cent from Friday’s close.

The Bank of Canada is scheduled to announce its decision on interest rates on Wednesday morning. The central bank is widely expected to leave its key interest rate unchanged.

In M&A news, Inco Ltd. terminated a $19 billion takeover agreement with American miner Phelps Dodge Corp. The move clears the way for a bid by Brazil’s CVRD to take possession of Toronto-based Inco with its own offer topping $19 billion.

In today’s economic news, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said that economic growth is likely to slow in Europe during the second half of 2006 after a bullish first half, but could pick up in the U.S. and Japan after a weak start so far this year.

In corporate news, Chevron announced today the first successful oil production from a deep-water region in the Gulf of Mexico that could become the United States’s biggest new domestic source of oil since the discovery of Alaska’s North Slope more than a generation ago.

In overseas trading, the Nikkei 225 index ticked up 27.89 points, or 0.17%, to finish at 16,385.96 on the Tokyo Stock Exchange,

In Hong Kong, the blue-chip Hang Seng Index fell 75.08 points, or 0.43%, to 17,438.8.

The FTSE 100 in London traded 0.4% lower.

On Friday, Toronto stocks closed higher heading into the Labour Day long weekend on an advance in the energy sector.

The S&P/TSX composite index moved up 71.32 points to 12,145.07.

The S&P/TSX Venture Exchange index increased 36.53 to close at 2,761.29.

In New York, markets ended with a big advance after the U.S. Labor Department reported a gain of 128,000 jobs in August.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 83.00 at 11,464.15. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 9.41 points to 2,193.16, and the S&P 500 Index added 7.19 points to 1,311.01.