Stocks are expected to rise Monday, as traders continue to build on the good feelings from Friday’s jobs reports and falling oil prices.

Traders will also be looking ahead to tomorrow’s decision on interest rates from the Bank of Canada.

In business news, Royal Bank says its clients’ account balances should be up to date today. The country’s largest bank revealed last Wednesday that it had fallen behind in processing millions of transactions due to a problem that occurred last Monday during a routine software upgrade of one of its systems.

Wheaton River Minerals Ltd. has rebuffed a sweetened takeover bid from Coeur d’Alene Mines and will continue with its plans to merge with IAMGold Corp.

The announcement comes one day before Wheaton River shareholders are due to vote on the deal with IAMGold.

Coeur d’Alene, an Idaho-based silver mining company, has offered $2.8 billion for Wheaton River.

In this morning’s economic news, Statistics Canada reported that the demand for new dwellings maintained its sustained pace in April as builders took out a new high in the value of residential building permits for a second month in a row.

StatsCan said municipalities issued $3.12 billion in housing permits, up 4.9% from the previous high of $2.97 billion in March.

The increase came from a spectacular gain of 15.5% in the value of multi-family permits, the value of which surpassed the $1-billion mark for the first time in a single month.

Later this morning, the U.S. Federal Reserve reports on consumer credit for April.

At midday in Europe, stocks are mostly higher. In Paris, the CAC 40 is up 0.7% higher at 3,726, while Frankfurt’s Dax Index is ahead 1.3% at 4,014.

Overnight Asian stocks surged, especially in Tokyo and Hong Kong.

Tokyo’s Nikkei closed up 2.8% at 1,1439.92 points, its biggest single-day point gain this year. In Hong Kong, the blue-chip Hang Seng rose 2.5% to 12,326.85 points, the highest point level since April 23.

Last Friday, stock markets posted modest gains on encouraging job growth reports in Canada and the United States and strength in the technology sector after a rosier outlook from computer-chip maker Intel.

In Canada, the economy created 37,000 more full-time jobs in May, pushing the unemployment rate down to 7.2% from 7.3% in April – the lowest rate since July 2001.

The S&P/TSX composite index gained 19.62 points to close at 8,348.74, up 1.66 for the week, while the junior TSX Venture composite index rose 3.28 points at 1,584.85, down 17.25 for the week.

On Wall Street, investors gave three cheers for the third-consecutive U.S. payrolls report showing strong growth in jobs, and major stock indexes glided higher. The Dow Jones industrial average finished up 46.91 points to 10,242.82, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index advanced 18.36 to 1,978.62.