North American markets are likely to open flat Tuesday as investors show caution ahead of tomorrow’s Federal Reserve decision on U.S. interest rates.

Most analysts expect a quarter-point rate increase when the Fed meets Wednesday.

In economic news, the U.S. Commerce Department is due to release wholesale inventory data at 10:00 ET. Economists expect wholesale inventories to have increased by 0.7% in September.

Crude-oil prices slipped 7¢ to US$49.02 a barrel in early trading Tuesday in New York.

The Canadian dollar eased to US83.62¢ early Tuesday after closing up 0.25 of a cent to US83.75¢ on Monday.

There are no major economic announcements from Statistics Canada today.

In earnings news, Marsh & McLennan posted sharply lower third-quarter earnings. The troubled insurance broker plans to cut 3,000 jobs and said it established a US$232 million reserve for any settlement of the New York attorney general’s probe of bid rigging.

In business news, ATI Technologies chairman K.Y. Ho, one of six people accused of illegal insider trading of the firm’s shares by the Ontario Securities Commission, plans to sell 40% of his holdings. Ho’s shares are to be sold by next June 30.

In other market news, Standard & Poor’s Canadian Index announced that shares of Microcell Telecommunications Inc. will be removed from the S&P/TSX Composite, S&P/TSX Capped Composite, S&P/TSX SmallCap and S&P/TSX Capped Telecommunication Services Indices at the close of business today.

Rogers Wireless Communications Inc. said yesterday that the tender offer for Microcell had been satisfied.

Toronto stocks closed lower Monday, as retreating oil prices put pressure on energy stocks. The S&P/TSX composite index ended the session down 43.01 points, or 0.48%, at 8,825.73 on volume of 223 million shares.

Energy issues were off 1.19% on retreating oil prices.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index was 9.40 points lower at 1,627.27.

On Wall Street, U.S. markets closed mostly unchanged as investors digested big post-election gains and turned their attention to this week’s Federal Reserve meeting.

The Dow Jones industrial average finished up 3.77 points, or 0.04%, to end at 10,391.31, based on the latest data. The S&P 500 fell 1.28 points, or 0.11%, to close at 1,164.89. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index edged up just 0.31 of a point, or 0.02%, to finish at 2,039.25.