North American stocks look set to open higher Monday after a troubled week.

In today’s economic news, metals and the continuing strength of the Canadian dollar pulled down the prices for manufactured goods in June, Statistics Canada reported. Meanwhile, crude oil pushed up the prices for raw materials.

The Canadian dollar opened at US93.63¢, down 0.55 of a cent.

In today’s earnings news, British Banking giant HSBC Holdings reported a 25% rise in first-half net profit on strong revenue growth across Asia and in corporate and investment banking, and from a $US1 billion extraordinary gain in its China business.

Here at home, HSBC Bank Canada said its second-quarter earnings are up more than 17% compared to the same period last year.

Verizon Communications said its second-quarter net income rose 4.5% as the company’s wireless business continued a trend of strong performances.

RadioShack posted a second-quarter profit but said its revenue fell 15% as it closed 481 stores.

In M&A news, ABN Amro withdrew its formal recommendation of Barclays takeover bid, citing the current value of the United Kingdom lender’s offer compared to a rival offer from the Royal Bank of Scotland, Banco Santander and Fortis. ABN also reported a 7% profit decline.

South Korea’s Doosan Infracore agreed to buy Ingersoll-Rand’s Bobcat construction equipment unit for US$4.9 billion.

Imperial Chemical Industries rejected a new $15.8 billion offer from Akzo Nobel.

After the close, earnings are due from Sun Microsystems.

Crude-oil prices fell 38¢ to US$76.64 a barrel in early morning trade.

In overseas stock markets, the FTSE 100 was off 0.4% in London and the Nikkei 225, after early losses, closed with a small gain.

On Friday, the Toronto Stock Exchange’s main index fell again as world markets slid further on worries that deteriorating credit markets would dry up funding and curb future corporate takeovers.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 96.07 points, or 0.7%, at 13,748.53.

The benchmark index dropped 5.7% in a week that included single-day losses of 400.17 points on Tuesday and 260.72 points on Thursday. It now hovers at late-June levels after touching a record 14,646.82 points last week.

The TSX is now up 6.5% year to date.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture bucked today’s losing trend. It rose 10.95 points, or 0.35%, to end at 3,163.25.

The Canadian dollar slipped 0.73 of a cent to US94.18¢ after falling 1.18¢ Thursday.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average dropped 208.1 points to 13,265.47, losing 585.53 points or 4.2% this week.

The Nasdaq composite index was off 37.1 points to 2,562.24, and the S&P 500 index was down 23.71 points to 1,458.95 for a loss of 4.9% this week.