North American markets look set to open lower Tuesday morning, as investors await the release of a closely watched reading on U.S. consumer confidence.

The U.S. Conference Board will release of the March consumer confidence report at 10:00 ET. The reading is expected to fall to 102.5 from 104 the prior month.

In business news, U.S. insurance giant American International Group is expected to be actively traded Tuesday on word that Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, the insurance industry’s most powerful figure for decades, decided to step down as non-executive chairman amid mounting law-enforcement scrutiny of AIG. Greenberg was ousted from the chief executive’s post two weeks ago.

Toronto stocks closed lower on Monday as oil prices eased below US$55 a barrel.

The S&P/TSX composite index fell 53.70 points, or 0.53%, to close at 9482.37, extending its losing streak to six sessions.

Volume was light at 174 million shares. Six of the TSX’s 10 groups finished in the red led by a 1.5% slide in energy as the May crude contract dropped 79¢ to close at US$54.05 on the New York Mercantile Exchange

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index fell 32.63 points, or 1.69%, to 1,902.35.

On Wall Street, U.S. stocks got a lift from the lower price of oil. They were also boosted by news of an US$11.3 billion leveraged buyout of software company SunGard Data Systems. Its shares jumped almost 10% on the New York Stock Exchange.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 42.78 points, or 0.4%, at 10,485. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index clung to a 1.46 point gain to finish at 1,992.52, and the broader S&P 500 rose 2.86 points, or 0.2%, to 1,174.28.