North American markets may ease in early trading Wednesday, as investors await Senate testimony from U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.

Greenspan gives his semi-annual report on monetary policy before the Senate Banking Committee at 10:00 ET. He is widely expected to reaffirm that the Fed remains on a gradual rate-tightening track against a backdrop of moderate U.S. economic growth and low inflation.

In today’s economic news, the U.S. Commerce Department said housing starts rose 4.7% in January to a seasonally adjusted 2.159 million annual rate. It was the highest level of starts since February 1984’s 2.260 million units. The rise in home construction surprised economists, who predicted starts would decrease by 3.5% to a 1.930 million annual rate.

The Fed is slated to release the industrial production report at 9:15 a.m. Economists look for industrial production to have increased by 0.4% in January.

In this morning’s earnings news, he Coca-Cola Co reported a 30% increase in fourth-quarter earnings, beating Wall Street expectations.

Toronto stocks closed lower Tuesday. The S&P/TSX was down 15.19 points or 0.16% to 9,570.03, while the TSX Venture Exchange gained 4.78 points or 0.25% to 1,892.93.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average added 46.19 points or 0.43% to 10,837.32, while the Nasdaq composite index gained 6.30 or 0.30% to 2,089.21 and the S&P 500 added 3.98 points or 0.33% to 1,210.12.

Both the Dow and the S&P closed at new highs for 2005.

In Toronto, gold stocks pushed the markets lower, falling 1.63% as the price of bullion lost $1.10 to US$424.70 an ounce.