North American stock markets look set to open higher early Thursday as oil prices rose after the latest U.S. inventory report.

Oil prices rose today, a day after the U.S. governemnt reported that stockpiles of crude and distillates fell in the last week. Light sweet crude for March delivery gained 28¢ to US$62.83 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midday in Europe.

In earning’s news Algoma Steel Inc. said its fourth-quarter profit fell to $55 million, down 55% from $122.2 million in the same period of 2004 due to lower prices for its products and higher costs.

In business news, Research In Motion said it has developed “software workaround designs” for its BlackBerry e-mail handsets, which are embroiled in a long-running U.S. patent dispute.

Wall Street investment bank Morgan Stanley named Zoe Cruz and Robert Scully as co-presidents late Wednesday. The investment bank last spring saw internal dissension after Cruz was named to that position by ex-CEO Philip Purcell.

Overseas, the Bank of England left its key interest rates unchanged at 4.5%, as was widely expected.

In London, the FTSE-100 index gained 0.7%.

Overnight in Asia, the benchmark Nikkei 225 index climbed 166.99 points, or 1.03%, to finish at 16,439.67 points on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

In Hong Kong, the blue-chip Hang Seng Index rose 39.99 points, or 0.3%, to 15,413.43.

The Canadian dollar opened at US87.11¢, up 0.15 of a cent.

On Wednesday, Toronto stocks continued their fall, though not to the same extent as the previous session, as commodity prices retreated.

The S&P/TSX composite index fell 82.18, or 0.70%, to 11,735.12, a day after the index lost 263.23. On Monday, the index had broken through the 12,000-point plateau to hit an all-time high.

The S&P/TSX Venture composite index finished down 10.64, or 0.42%, to 2,531.41.

On Wall Street, strong corporate news from Cisco Systems and Pfizer Inc. drove U.S. markets forward.

The Dow Jones industrial index ended up 108.86 points, or 1.01%, at 10,858.62, the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 22.02 points, 0.98%, to 2,266.98, while the S&P 500 climbed 10.87 points, 0.87%, to 1,265.65.