North American stocks are expected to edge higher at the open Friday as investors looked to extend the previous session’s strong gains.

In today’s economic news, the U.S. Labor Department reported the November consumer price index was unchanged at in November as food,energy prices fell. ‘Core’ inflation was also unchanged, its lowest reading in more than a year.

Economists had call for a 0.2% rise in the CPI following a 0.5% fall in October.

Here at home, Statistics Canada reported that national net worth reached $4.8 trillion by the end of the third quarter, or $146,700 per person.

The Canadian dollar opened at US86.47¢, up 0.09 of a cent.

In M&A news, Tm Bioscience Corp.announced a friendly all-stock deal to be taken over by Luminex Corp. of Austin, Tex., for about $44 million. Luminex is offering 0.06 of a share for each share of the Toronto-based developer of genetic testing technology.

In earnings news, Adobe Systems said late Thursday that its fiscal fourth-quarter net earnings rose 16% to $US181.9 million, or 30¢ a share.

Also after Thursday’s closing bell, E-Trade Financial forecast earnings for 2007 that were in line with Wall Street estimates. It sees earnings of $1.65 to $1.80 a share on revenue of US$2.75 billion to US$3 billion. The company also said it will move its stock market listing to Nasdaq from the New York Stock Exchange.

Crude-oil prices rose 27¢ to US$62.78 a barrel following the decision by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to cut production by another half a million barrels a day.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index rose 85.11 points, or 0.5% to close at 16,914.31 and the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 index was up 0.3% in midday trading.

North American stocks rallied Thursday, setting fresh all-time records.

The Toronto market burst through the 13,000-point plateau on the strength of the resource sectors and broad-based strength in the wider market, while the New York Stock Exchange rode positive corporate earnings news to a peak close.

The S&P/TSX composite index shot up 111.45 points, or 0.86%, to 13,021.77.

Eight of the 10 TSX main sub-groups were up.

The S&P/TSX Venture composite index advanced 27.38 points, or 0.98%, to 2,813.99.

In New York, the Big Board moved higher on a strongly positive earnings outlook from Honeywell International Inc. while all indices enjoyed investor optimism about the U.S. equity markets.

The Dow Industrials rose 99.26 points to 12,416.76, while posting an intra-day high of 12,427. The S&P 500 gained 12.28 points to 1,425.49, while the Nasdaq composite moved up 21.44 points to 2,453.85.