North American markets may open mixed Monday as crude-oil prices rose above Friday’s record finish and approached US$57 a barrel in overseas trading.

The front-month crude-oil contract rose 26¢ to US$56.98 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange amid continued skepticism about the Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries’ ability to calm markets by increasing official output. The contract finished at a record US$56.72 a barrel on Friday.

Here at home, Statistics Canada said wholesale sales slipped 0.2% in January, after rising for three consecutive months.

Excluding the automotive sector, sales climbed a hefty 1.1%. Wholesalers continued to boost their inventories for a fifth month in a row.

Of the 15 trade groups which represent 52% of total sales, 10 posted increases in January. The biggest declines were in the motor vehicles group, down 7.1%, and the “other products” category, down 4.2%. However, these same two sectors had enjoyed robust growth in December.

No major U.S. economic indicators are on the calendar Monday. Investors are waiting for the next big event: The Federal Reserve meeting on Tuesday, in which U.S. policy makers are expected to raise a key short-term interest rate by a quarter percentage point to 2.75%.

In business news, there are reports this morning that General Motors plans to slash its North American white-collar work force.

Late Friday, Nortel Networks reported a loss of US$259 million for the 2004 third quarter. In a long-delayed financial report, the telecom equipment maker revealed a third-quarter loss of 6¢ a diluted share, compared with a profit of US$131 million or 3¢ a share in the same 2003 period.


Toronto stocks closed lower on Friday as energy issues handed back a small portion of their recent gains. The S&P/TSX composite index fell 23.51 points, or 0.24%, to 9,754.69.

For the week, the key index finished ahead 0.65%.

Energy stocks were pulled down 0.5% by profit-taking after their recent run-up despite high oil prices.

U.S. blue-chip stocks ended a touch ahead on Friday but the Nasdaq closed at a 2005 low, capping a choppy session as the long-awaited rebalancing of the S&P 500 index was combined with quarterly options expiration.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 3.32 points, or 0.03%, to finish at 10,629.67, after falling as low as 10,557.04. The S&P 500 Index was down just 0.56 of a point, or 0.05%, to end at 1,189.65, after falling as low as 1,182.78.

The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index was down 8.63 points, or 0.43%, to close at 2,007.79, after falling as low as 1,999.98.