North American stocks will likely open mixed ahead of the U.S. Memorial Day weekend.

Crude oil futures held above US$51 as this weekend marks the start of the American summer driving season. Light sweet crude for July was up 9¢ to US$51.10 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Meanwhile, U.S. personal income increased 0.7%, after rising an unrevised 0.5% in March, the U.S. Commerce Department said today. It was the largest increase since income climbed 4.0% last December.

April personal consumption rose 0.6%, after climbing a revised 0.9% the month before. Spending was initially seen increasing 0.6% in March.

Economists had called for personal income to increase 0.7% and consumer spending to climb 0.8% in April.

Later this morning, the University of Michigan will release the final May reading of its consumer sentiment index. Economists look for a reading of 86, below the 87.7 in the final April reading, but up from the 85.3 preliminary May reading.

In this morning’s financial news, New Century Financial Corp. of Irvine, Calif., says one its subsidiaries is buying 135 branches of U.S.-based RBC Mortgage Co., a unit of Toronto-based Royal Bank, for an undisclosed price.

In Europe, Unicredito Italiano says it is in advanced talks to buy Germany’s HVB for about US$20 billion, in what would be Europe’s largest cross-border banking deal.

On Thursday, Toronto stocks closed higher Thursday as crude oil stayed above US$51 a barrel. The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 69.53 points, 0.73%, at 9,579.05.


The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite was ahead 16.37, or 1.02%, at 1,621.88.

In New York, indexes were also higher as a better-than-expected reading on the U.S. economy cancelled out investor worries about the cost of oil.

The Dow Jones industrial average was 79.80 points higher at 10,537.60. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index moved up 21.12 to 2,071.24 while the S&P 500 index gained 7.61 to 1,197.62.

The U.S. Commerce Department reported that the American economy rang up a solid 3.5% annualized growth rate in the first quarter, a sign of a strong springtime business expansion. The latest reading was an upgrade from the 3.1% pace initially estimated.