North American stocks are poised to fall Tuesday morning amid weak U.S. retail sales data and further concerns about the subprime lending sector.

The U.S. Commerce Department said February retail sales increased 0.1%. Economists had forecast an advance of 0.3%. A report on January inventories is due at 10:00 ET.

There are no major economic releases from Statistics Canada today.

The Canadian dollar opened at US85.57¢, up 0.11 of a cent.

In earnings news, Goldman Sachs record net income of US$3.2 billion for the first quarter, on a 22% increase in revenue, on strong results in trading and banking.

Texas Instruments revised its forecast revenue lower to the range of US$3.07 billion to US$3.22 billion. TI previously had forecast revenue in the range of US$3.01 billion to US$3.28 billion.

In other business news, subprime lender New Century Financial disclosed that the staff of Securities and Exchange Commission was conducting a preliminary investigation into the company, and that it had received a grand jury subpoena from the U.S. Attorney’s Office related to a criminal probe.

Trading of New Century’s shares was halted Monday by the New York Stock Exchange due to a review of recent disclosures involving the company’s liquidity and financing efforts.

Oil prices rose Tuesday as traders perceived that a previous drop of nearly two per cent was overdone given the outlook for continued strong energy demand and declining U.S. gasoline inventories. Light sweet crude for April delivery gained 53¢ to US$59.44 a barrel by noon in Europe on the New York Mercantile Exchange.


Key European indexes dropped in early action.

Asian markets were mixed. Tokyo’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index shed 113.55 points, or 0.66 per cent, to finish at 17,178.84.

In Hong Kong, the blue-chip Hang Seng Index fell 109.28 points, or 0.6 per cent, to finish at 19,333.14.

Toronto stocks ended slightly higher Monday, after spending most of the session in negative territory, as the energy sector largely offset a positive day across the broader market.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 7.78 points, or 0.06%, to 13,065.15.

The S&P/TSX Venture composite index climbed 7.39 points, or 0.24%, to 3,135.08.

The Canadian dollar was up 0.16 of a cent to US85.46¢.

In New York, markets moved higher, despite continued concern over the subprime mortgage market, on the strength of merger and acquisition announcements.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 42.30 points to 12,318.62, the S&P 500 Index nudged ahead 3.75 to 1,406.60, while the Nasdaq composite index advanced 14.74 at 2,402.29.