North American stocks are expected to open higher, as the U.S. presidential race heats up in Boston and the flood of quarterly earnings results continues.

In today’s economic news, Statistics Canada said retailers sold $28.6 billion worth of goods and services in May, an increase of 0.5% from April, when sales fell 0.8%.

StatsCan said May’s gain marked the fourth increase in five months. Previously, retailers had suffered four consecutive monthly sales declines at the end of 2003, after experiencing a period of general increases that began in the fall of 2001.

In banking news, Abbey National PLC, the U.K.’s sixth-largest bank, approved a takeover proposal from Spain’s Banco Santander Central Hispano SA that values the British bank at £8.9 billion, or $US16.29 billion.

The transaction would create the world’s 10th-largest bank by market capitalization, Abbey said. It would be Europe’s largest-ever cross-border banking deal.

Overnight in Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei slipped 27.78 points to 11,159.55.

In Hong Kong, the main Hang Seng Index fell 33.16 points to 12,319.83.

On Friday, Toronto’s S&P/TSX composite index slipped 14.74 points to finish at 8,383.31. The benchmark index was still up 32.85 points on the week.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index shed 10.51 points to 1,499.08.

In New York, the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index slid 39.97 points, or 2.12%, at 1,849.28, hitting a fresh low for the year.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 88.11 points, or 0.88%, to 9,962.36, closing below the key 10,000 level for the first time in two months.

The S&P 500 Index dropped 10.64 points, or 0.97%, at 1,086.20, marking its sixth consecutive week of losses.

For the week, the Dow was down 1.75%, while the Nasdaq fell 1.8% and the broad S&P 500 was off 1.4%.

The Dow is now down more than 4% for the year, the Nasdaq down 7%and the S&P 500 is down 2%.