Toronto stocks may open higher Tuesday thanks to solid earnings from Petro-Canada, Alcan and Canadian Pacific ahead of today’s interest rate announcement from the Bank of Canada.

The Canadian dollar opened at US89.28¢, up 0.20 cent from Monday’s close.

In other economic news, the composite index advanced 0.4% in March, reinforcing its 0.7% gain the month before.

Statistics Canada said household spending remained the driving force of growth, boosted by a robust labour market. Financial market conditions also remained buoyant, with the stock market hitting a new record. Manufacturing continued to recover slowly, as sluggish US demand was compounded by the rail strike.

In today’s earnings news, Canadian Pacific Railway reported net income growth of 18% to $128.6 million in the first quarter.

Alcan reported record net earnings of $591 million for the first quarter, up from $453 million a year ago.

Petro-Canada beat expectations as quarterly earnings rose to $580 million from $486 million.

Ipsco said its net profits fell to US$109.4 million for the quarter from US$150.7 million.

After markets closed Monday, CN Rail reported that its first-quarter profit dropped 10% to $324 million amid poor weather and a strike which cut profits by $35 million.

Oil prices edged higher Tuesday as markets worried about violence in Nigeria and looked ahead to the U.S. petroleum supply report.

Light, sweet crude for June delivery rose 1¢ to US$65.90 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midday in Europe.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average slipped 3.6 points to 17,451.77.

Britain’s FTSE 100 was down 28.6 to 6,451.1, Germany’s DAX index was down 36.4 points to 7,299.22, and France’s CAC-40 was down 3.22 points to 5,914.1.

Toronto stocks finished lower Monday, as a weak day in the financials and materials sector dragged down the market.

The S&P/TSX composite index fell 27.59 points, or 0.20%, to 13,637.12.

Half of the 10 TSX main sub-groups finished lower.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index slipped 9.58 points, or 0.28%, to 3,351.83.

In New York, markets finished lower as investor elected to lock in gains made last week.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 42.58 points, or 0.33%, to 12,919.40, the Nasdaq composite index dipped 2.72, or 0.11%, to 2,523.67, the S&P 500 lost 3.42, or 0.23%, to 1,480.93.