North American markets are likely to decline at Tuesday’s open, as oil prices climb.

Crude-oil prices rose 15¢ to US$52.18 a barrel in early Tuesday trading.

In today’s earnings news, Toyota Motor said its fiscal fourth-quarter net profit fell 17% from a year-earlier quarter that included a big pension-related gain. The Japanese auto maker’s full-year earnings rose slightly on higher vehicle sales.

There are no major economic data scheduled for release today in the United States.

Here at home, Statistics Canada reported that new housing prices were up moderately from February, while the 12-month rate of increase remained the same at 5.1%.

Increased costs for building materials and labour along with favourable market conditions led to higher new home prices, the government agency said. Land value increases were a factor in 8 of the 21 metropolitan areas surveyed.

On Monday, technology stocks provided the spark for Toronto markets, while a new round of merger news helped U.S. investors take their minds off inflation fears and rising cruder oil prices.

At close the Toronto S&P/TSX composite index was up 38.46 points or 0.4% at 9,561.20, while the junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index edged up 2.02 points or 0.12% at 1,697.47.

On Wall Street, the blue-chip Dow Jones industrials advanced 38.94 points or 0.38% at 10,384.34. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite added 12.32 points or 0.63% at 1,979.67, while the S&P 500 index climbed 7.49 points or 0.64% to 1,178.84.

In Toronto, tech shares surged 2.80% on upbeat news about Nortel Networks Corp. and Research In Motion Ltd.

Nortel stock jumped 24¢ or 8.03% to $3.23 after it announced it has hired former Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and General Electric Co. executive Paul Karr to be its full-time controller, the telecom equipment maker said on Thursday.

Research In Motion added $1.97 or 2.90% to US$69.61 after noting it now has more than three million subscribers to its BlackBerry wireless e-mail device, a third of those added in less than six months.

Together Nortel and RIM traded more than 27 million shares, about 15% of Monday’s total volume on the TSX.

Among financial stocks, Power Financial Corp. shares lost 94¢ or 2.81% to $32.50. The company, which has major assets in insurance and mutual funds companies including Great-West Lifeco Inc. and IGM Financial, reported that first-quarter earnings rose to $379 million vs $335 million a year ago.

On Wall Street, merger news dominated the headlines. Online discount broker E-Trade Financial is reportedly going after rival AmeriTrade Holding in a deal that would be worth US$5.5 billion. AmeriTrade has reportedly been in talks with TD Waterhouse Group, which is owned by the TD Bank. E-Trade shares were 72¢ higher to US$12.65, AmeriTrade stock was up US$2.11 to US$13.42 and TD Bank moved up 49¢ to $51.14.