North American stocks look poised to rise at Tuesday’s open after Procter & Gamble reported better-than-expected earnings and raised its outlook.

P&G, the world’s largest consumer-products company, said today that first-quarter net income rose 33% to US$2.7 billion, or 79 cents a share, from US$2.03 billion, or 77 cents a share, a year earlier. Sales for the period rose 27% to US$18.79 billion.

In today’s economic news, the U.S. Labor Department said the employment cost index rose 1% in the third quarter — the fastest quarterly increase since the second quarter of 2004 — after going up 0.9% in the previous three-month period. Wall Street expected a 0.9% increase in employment costs. The data suggested that a tight jobs market is putting some upward pressure on labour costs.

In other economic news, data on U.S. consumer confidence and Chicago area manufacturing in October are due at 10:00 ET.

Here at home, Statistics Canada said the Canadian economy advanced 0.3% in August after growing 0.2% in July.

The Canadian dollar opened at US88.65¢, down 0.15 of a cent.

In other earnings news, Alcan Inc. said its third-quarter profit soared to US$456 million from a year-earlier US$81 million, with the aluminum producer’s cash flow hitting a record US$803 million.

Eastman Kodak’s net loss narrowed, largely because of a tax valuation charge in the year-earlier quarter. Both traditional and digital revenue declined from a year ago. Revenue fell 9.8% to US$3.2 billion.

Swiss bank UBS said third-quarter net profit slid 21%, as lackluster capital markets hurt its investment-banking business.

MetLife reported a 34% profit rise and said it would restart a share buyback program.

Crude-oil prices fell 51 cents to US$57.85 a barrel in electronic trading, after tumbling more than $2 a barrel the previous day.

The Nikkei 225 closed 0.3% higher on Tuesday in Tokyo trade.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng rose 0.2%.

European stock markets shook off early losses, with the German DAX 30 rising 0.3%.

Toronto stocks were up slightly Monday, as a big drop in the energy sector was offset by strength in the materials market and in the wider market overall.

The S&P/TSX composite index ticked ahead 5.54 points, or 0.05%, to 12,274.40.

Eight of the 10 TSX main sub-groups were up, but energy sank 1.94% on lower oil prices. The S&P/TSX Venture composite index gained 19.30 points, or 0.76%, to 2,559.73.

In New York, markets were mixed as investors balanced disappointing earnings news from Wal-Mart with lower energy prices.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 3.76 points to 12,086.50, the Nasdaq composite index rose 13.15 points to 2,363.77 while the S&P 500 ended essentially flat, rising 0.59 of a point to 1,377.93.