North American stocks are expected to open higher Monday despite rising bond yields.

Worries about rising interest rates in the U.S. and around the world have driven bond yields sharply higher in recent weeks.

In today’s economic news, Canadian industries slightly increased the use of their production capacity during the first quarter of 2007, halting four consecutive quarters of decline, Statistics Canada reported.

Capacity utilization edged up to 83% from 82.4% in the fourth quarter of 2006, StatsCan said. This level was 3.0 points below the rate posted in the fourth quarter of 2005, before the quarterly drops observed in 2006.

Separately, StatsCan said the cost of new housing rose 0.8% in April from the previous month.

The Canadian dollar was down 0.18 of a cent at US94.14¢, as the American dollar rose against most currencies.

In M&A news, Onex Corp. has joined a group bidding for BCE, which already includes the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, the Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec and U.S. buyout firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.

Canada’s Peru Copper announced it has agreed to be taken over by Aluminum Corp. of China. The offer of $6.60 per share in cash valued Peru Copper at $840 million.

Owens-Illinois agreed to sell its plastics business to Rexam for US$1.83 billion. Rexam on Friday said it was in talks to buy the unit.

International Business Machines disclosed it is the suitor behind a US$745 million offer for Telelogic.

Barclays is being urged by investor Atticus Capital to drop its bid for ABN Amro Holding, according to published reports.

In earnings news, Texas Instruments is expected to issue a midquarter update after the market close.

Crude-oil futures were up 50¢ to US$65.26 a barrel.

Overseas, the Nikkei 225 rose 0.3% in Tokyo and the FTSE 100 rose 0.7% in London.

North American stock markets closed sharply higher Friday as investors looked for bargains, after the sell off earlier in the week.

Toronto’s S&P/TSX composite index moved up 94.62 points to 13,798.5 after tumbling 3.1% in the past two sessions.

Overall, the TSX lost 321 points or 2.27% for the week.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index declined 3.22 points to 3,190.55.

In New York, U.S. stocks closed higher after a three-day slide.

The Dow Jones industrial average shot up 157.66 points, or 1.19%, to end at 13,424.39. The S&P 500 jumped 16.95 points, or 1.14%, to finish at 1,507.67. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index climbed 32.16 points, or 1.27%, to close at 2,573.54.

For the week, the Dow ended down 1.78%, the S&P 500 fell 1.87% and the Nasdaq lost 1.54%.