North American markets may climb following last week’s mediocre start to the new trading year.

In today’s economic news, Statistics Canada said the value of building permits surged to their second highest level on record in November in the wake of strong gains in the non-residential sector and continuing growth in the residential sector. Municipalities issued $5 billion in permits, up 9.3% from October.

South of the border, the U.S. Commerce Department is slated to release November wholesale inventories at 10:00 ET. Economists expect the gauge to climb 0.8%, following a 1.1% increase in the prior month.

This week marks the informal opening of the U.S. earnings season as Alcoa, always the first of the 30 Dow industrials to report earnings, is scheduled to release its fourth-quarter results after the closing bell today.

Financial stocks sent Bay Street lower Friday as investors fretted over speculation interest rates may be on the rise, while Wall Street seemed unsure what to make of new employment data.

At market close, the S&P/TSX composite index was down 58.04 points or 0.64% to 9,006.22, making for a decline for the first week of the new year of 2.7%. Volume was 254.1 million shares.

The TSX Venture Exchange climbed 18.62 points or 1.05% to 1,784.90.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average seesawed throughout much of the day before finishing down 18.92 points or 0.18% at 10,603.96, for a decline of 1.7% on the week. The Nasdaq composite index dipped 1.39 points or 0.07% to 2088.61, for a drop of 4.1% on the week. The S&P 500 Index lost 1.70 points or 0.14% to 1,186.19.

The Canadian dollar gained 0.22 of a cent to US81.19¢ as Statistics Canada reported that job creation total was about twice the number that had been expected and the unemployment rate eased to 7% from 7.3%.

On Wall Street, the December payrolls report for the U.S. showed the creation of 157,000 new jobs, while the unemployment rate remained at 5.4%. The data caused a mixed reaction. The data was shy of Wall Street estimates, but still showed reasonable employment growth and eased concerns that the Fed will accelerate the pace of rate hikes.