North American markets look set to open lower after last night’s speech from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and disappointing results from software giant Oracle.

Oracle late Monday said it earned 42% more than a year ago in its fiscal third quarter, but reported just a 4% rise in revenue from new database licenses. The results were “disappointing”, analysts at Lehman Brothers said.

Also on Monday, Tim Hortons Inc. said it is boosting the price of its stock and granting its underwriters the option to buy more shares when the company goes public this week. Tim Hortons shares will likely be priced between $25 to $27 per share, up from $21 to $23 per share, the company said.

Markets were cautious yesterday ahead of Bernanke’s speech, delivered after the close of trading. He said little about the future direction of interest rates ahead of his first Fed meeting next week, although Bernanke did say the recent inversion of the yield curve is not a signal of economic weakness.

In this morning’s economic news, Statistics Canada said retail sales rose for a fourth consecutive month in January, advancing 1.4% to a record high of $31.8 billion.

Separately, the government agency said the leading indicator grew by 0.2% in February after downward-revised gains of 0.3% in January and 0.4% in December.

StatsCan said the February easing partly reflected a slowdown in the stock markets and housing after unusually sharp gains in January

The Canadian dollar opened at US85.95¢, down 0.18 of a cent.

South of the border, U.S. wholesale prices dropped 1.4% in February as gasoline prices tumbled, but costs excluding volatile energy and food prices advanced 0.3%.

Caution over U.S. interest rates also spilled into stock markets overseas.

In Europe, markets in London and Frankfurt saw small losses.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange was closed in observance of Vernal Equinox Day, a national holiday. It will reopen Wednesday.

In Hong Kong, the blue-chip Hang Seng Index slipped 7.2 points, or 0.1%, to 15,922.75.

Crude-oil contracts continued the decline of more than $2, or nearly 4%, seen Monday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, with front-month crude down 42 cents at $60 a barrel in electronic trading.

Toronto stocks fell below the 12,000-point plateau Monday, driven lower by a retreating energy sector.

The S&P/TSX composite index lost 71.41, or 0.60%, to 11.929.32, after two sessions above 12,000 points, including a record close last Thursday of 12,085.65.

The S&P/TSX Venture composite index finished up 10.60, or 0.40%, to 2,675.33.

In New York, markets were mixed.

The Dow Jones industrial average dipped 5.12 points to 11,274.53, the Nasdaq was up 7.63 points to 2,314.11 while the S&P 500 fell 2.17 points to 1,305.08.