Wall Street stock index futures indicated a weak opening Monday amid weak earnings from Bank of America and another record oil price.

In today’s earnings news, Bank of America reported a 77% drop in first-quarter earnings to US$1.21 billion, hurt by writedowns and swelling credit losses.

Oil spiked to a record US$117.40 a barrel after a Japanese oil tanker was reportedly fired on by a rocket launcher from a small boat in Middle Eastern waters off Yemen, while Nigerian militants said they had attacked two more oil pipelines in the Niger Delta.

Crude was trading at US$117.00, up 31 cents, later in the morning on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Here at home, Canadians sharply increased their holdings of foreign securities by $6.1 billion in February, Statistics Canada said. Meanwhile, non-residents acquired $3.8 billion worth of Canadian securities over the month, their largest monthly purchase since April 2007.

The Canadian dollar opened at US99.25¢, down 0.26 cent from Friday.

In today’s M&A news, Consolidated Thompson Iron Mines Ltd. has agreed to acquire Quinto Mining Corp. in an all-stock transaction valued at $150 million, combining Quebec iron projects.

Eldorado Gold Corp. announced an all-stock bid valued at $157 million for Frontier Pacific Mining Corp., which owns the Perama Hill gold project in Greece.

In Asia, the Nikkei 225 average rose 220.10 points, or 1.6%, to 13696.55, topping 13,500 for the first time since February.

Hong Kong’s main index advanced 2.2%, boosted by property developers and by China’s latest measure to support equity markets. The Hang Seng Index rose 523.89 points to 24,721.67

In Europe, the Bank of England announced a plan worth 50 billion pounds or about $100 billion to allow commercial banks to swap mortgage-backed securities for Treasury bills.

The FTSE 100 index was off 0.3% near midday in London, while the German DAX lost 1% and the Paris CAC 40 fell 1.2%.

Strong financial stocks pushed markets higher Friday, with Research and Motion shares adding to the positive momentum on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 121.56 points, or 0.86%, at 14,237.06, as eight of the 10 major TSX groups made gains.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index closed down 18.60 points, or 0.72%, at 2572.19.

In New York, markets soared on better-than-expected earnings from Google and not-as-bad-as-expected write-downs from Citigroup Inc.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 228.87 points, or 1.82%, to close out at 12,849.85. The S&P 500 rose 24.77 points, or 1.81%, to close at 1,390.33.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 61.14 points, or 2.61%, to end the day at 2,402.97.

For the week, the Dow ended gained 4.3%, he S&P 500 rose 4.3%, and the Nasdaq jumped of 4.9%.