North American stocks will be facing pressure from higher oil prices and the weak U.S. dollar when trading opens Monday. Crude oil futures edged up toward US$50 a barrel in early trading amid renewed fears over winter supplies.

Light sweet crude for delivery in January traded at US$49.49 a barrel at midday in Europe, up 60¢ from the contract’s closing price Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The Canadian dollar opened at US83.96¢, up 0.14 of a cent from Friday’s close.

There was some good news on the economic front this morning. Total spending in retail stores advanced for a fifth consecutive month in September, Statistics Canada said today.

Canadian retailers sold $29.1 billion worth of goods and services, up 0.2% from August when sales rose 0.7%, StatsCan said.

The government agency said “successive increases in retail sales led to advances of 1.4% in both the second and third quarter of 2004, which followed a 2.3% jump in the first quarter.”

There are no major economic releases from the United States today.

Toronto stocks closed lower Friday as strength in energy shares was offset by worries over the rising value of the Canadian dollar. The S&P/TSX composite index ended down 12.14 points, or 0.14%, at 8,959.40.

For the week, the benchmark index rose 0.7%.

The U.S. dollar fell following comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan about the fact that foreigners may be reluctant to continue financing the U.S. debt.

On Wall Street, U.S. stocks fell sharply after Greenspan’s comments.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 115.64 points, or 1.09% at 10,456.91.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index fell 33.65 points, or 1.60%, to 2,070.63.

The broader S&P 500 dropped 13.21 points, or 1.12% to 1,170.34.

For the week, the Dow slipped 0.78%, the S&P dropped 1.17%, and the Nasdaq shaved off 0.68%.