Wall Street stock futures pointed to a modest pullback Tuesday’s after yesterday’s sharp rise.

On Monday, stock markets in Canada and the U.S. surged sharply higher as investors reacted to news of a major Canadian oil sands deal and details of a U.S. government plan to buy up toxic banking assets.

Later today, the U.S. Federal Reserve’s chairman and the Secretary of the Treasury are making a joint appearance at a congressional hearing to testify over bonuses at American International Group Inc.

Here at home, Statistics Canada reported that the number of Canadians receiving regular Employment Insurance benefits rose to 560,400 in January, up 4.4% or 23,700 from December.

There were 10,755 bankruptcies in Canada in January, almost 21% more than a year earlier, the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy reported Tuesday.

There were 10,208 bankruptcies filed by consumers, 23.1% more than in January 2008, while there were 567 bankruptcies filed by businesses, 9.9% fewer than a year ago.

The Canadian dollar opened at US81.59¢, down 0.21 of a cent, after joining most major currencies yesterday in gaining against the American dollar.

In commodities news, light sweet crude oil slipped 40¢ to US$53.40 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Gold prices declined amid the gains for the greenback, sliding to around US$930 an ounce.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average rose 3.3%. In afternoon trading, Britain’s FTSE 100 fell one%, Germany’s DAX index rose 0.2%, and France’s CAC-40 declined 0.2%.

On Monday, the S&P/TSX composite index soared 452.16 points, or 5.3%, to close at 8,958.51.

Financial stocks jumped 8.9% as investors took in long-awaited details of the U.S. Treasury Department’s plan to relieve banks of toxic assets.

The S&P/TSX Venture composite added 22.23 points, or 2.5%, to close at 924.03.

In New York, U.S. stocks experienced an even sharper rally on the news of the Treasury plan.

The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 497.48 points, or 6.8%, to 7,775.86. The advance marked the Dow’s fifth biggest point gain in its history and fourth biggest since December 31, 2007.

The S&P 500 index added 54.38 points, or 7.1%, to stand at 822.92.

The Nasdaq composite index rose 98.5 points, or 6.8%, to close at 1,555.77.

IE