North American stock markets may open higher Tuesday as oil prices dropped further.

Oil prices fell to around US$55 a barrel Tuesday as warm weather in the U.S. Northeast continued to hurt demand for heating fuel. Light sweet crude for February delivery dropped 77¢ to US$55.32 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midday in Europe.

There are no major economic releases from Statistics Canada today.

The Canadian dollar opened at US85.01¢, down 0.01 of a cent.

In today’s earnings news, drugstore chain Jean Coutu Group Inc. said its second-quarter earnings soared to US$72.5 million from a year-earlier US$30.8 million on higher sales and a positive adjustment related to sale of U.S. stores to Rite Aid.

Fourth quarter earnings season begins today when aluminum giant Alcoa reports results after the bell, but the outlook is mixed, especially for energy and materials companies as commodity prices have pulled back.

It is a light week for earnings overall, with just four S&P 500 companies expected to release results. The peak weeks of earnings season will begin Jan. 16.

Sprint Nextel said it expects to report full-year 2006 consolidated operating revenue of about US$41 billion, below the average analyst forecast of US$41.5 billion.

In M&A news, Pearl Exploration and Production Ltd. has agreed to sell all its Gulf of Mexico assets to Kit Resources Ltd. in a deal worth about $12 million.

Overseas, European indexes rose in early action.

Asian markets were mixed, with Japanese stocks higher after a three-day weekend, but Hong Kong shares declined.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index rose 146.18 points, or 0.86%, to 17,237.77 points. Japanese financial markets were closed Monday for a national holiday.

In Hong Kong, however, the blue-chip Hang Seng Index fell 131.58 points, or 0.7%, to 19,898.08.

Toronto stocks closed higher on Monday after three losing sessions last week cut more than 3% from the Toronto Stock Exchange’s bench mark index.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 75.12 points, or 0.6%, at 12,553.09.

All but two of the TSX index’s 10 main groups ended higher.

The energy sector advanced 1.2%, even as oil prices fell.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index gained 9.42 points, or 0.33%, to end at 2,831.65.

New York markets also closed higher on lower oil prices and mixed corporate news on the eve of the start of the quarterly earnings reporting season.

The Dow Jones industrials moved up 25.48 points to 12,423.49. The Nasdaq climbed 3.95 points to 2,438.2 while the S&P 500 index rose 3.13 points to 1,412.84.