U.S. stock futures rallied Tuesday morning after Wal-Mart Stores posted solid results and oil prices continued to back away from record levels.

Wal-Mart said its third-quarter net income grew 7.9% on higher profits at U.S. stores. The world’s largest retailer also raised its outlook for fiscal 2008 earnings.

Oil futures continued to retreat Tuesday, falling 92¢ to US$93.70 a barrel as the International Energy Agency reduced world-wide demand forecasts for the fourth quarter and next year, citing slowing economies in the U.S. and the former Soviet Union.

In today’s U.S. economic news, a report on September pending-home sales is due.

There was a flood of overseas economic figures, with inflation accelerating during October in China, France and the United Kingdom.

The Bank of Japan held interest rates steady, and its governor said the global economy was at risk if the turmoil in the U.S. housing market were to spread.

Here at home, the Canadian dollar opened at US$1.0433, up 1.24 cents from Mondays afternoon trading but down from Friday’s official close of US$1.067.

Canada’s banks were closed Monday for the Remembrance Day holiday, so there was no official trading of the currency in Toronto.

In other earnings news, home-improvement retailer Home Depot announced a 27% decline in third-quarter net income and cut its fiscal-year earnings guidance, as the housing market continued to plague the company’s bottom line.

In financial news, Banking giant Citigroup announced a reorganization of its investment banking unit, removing the co-heads of its credit markets group and pushing tighter integration of its equity and fixed income sales and underwriting operations.

In M&A news, Petro Rubiales Energy Corp. said Monday it has an agreement to merge with Pacific Stratus Energy Ltd. to create “Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp.” in a deal valued at $670 million.

Overseas, the Nikkei 225 slipped 0.5% in Tokyo, and the FTSE 100 eased 0.1% in London.

Toronto stocks sank Monday, as the price of both oil and gold tumbled, and the Canadian dollar fell from the heights it reached last week.

The S&P/TSX composite index lost 264.86 points, or 1.91%, to 13,604.96. Eight of the 10 TSX main sub-groups were down.

Among the session’s few gains Cognos Inc. rose $5.33, or 10.66%, to $55.35 after it was announced the Canadian software firm would be acquired by IBM for US$5 billion.

The S&P/TSX Venture composite index fell 95.92 points, or 3.15%, to 2,952.62. In New York, markets dropped as the market reacted to the drop in gold and other metals prices and to weakness on Asian markets.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 55.19 points, or 0.42%, to 12,987.55, the Nasdaq composite index fell 43.81, or 1.67%, to 2,584.13, and the S&P500 gave up 14.52, or 1.00%, to 1,439.18.