The Canadian Press

North American stock markets headed for a higher open Tuesday amid a slew of better-than-expected earnings reports in the United States.

The Dow Jones industrial futures advanced 39 points to 10,050, the Nasdaq futures rose 16.5 to 1,766.8, and the S&P futures gained 5.7 points to 1,096.8.

The Canadian dollar was lower ahead of the Bank of Canada’s scheduled announcement on interest rates later in the morning (9 a.m. ET). The central bank is expected to keep its key rate unchanged and on top of that “is widely expected to reiterate its commitment to keep the policy rate at 0.25% until the end of June 2010, conditional on the inflation outlook,” said BMO Capital Markets senior economist Michael Gregory.

Toronto energy stocks could be soft at the open as oil prices drifted away from their most recent 2009 high. The November crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange moved down 24¢ to US$79.37 a barrel.

The latest bout of earnings optimism took off after the market close Monday when both Apple Inc. and Texas Instruments delivered better-than-expected earnings reports and helped restore investor confidence that was shaken late last week by big banks’ loan losses.

Chemical maker DuPont and health insurer UnitedHealth Group Inc. each cited cost-cutting efforts as they reported better results for the July-September period from a year earlier. Pfizer Inc., the world’s biggest pharmaceutical company, also reported that lower expenses boosted its earnings.

Caterpillar also surprised even as it said its profit plunged in the latest quarter as construction companies bought fewer of its big yellow-and-black machines.

But the company said it sees rebounding demand worldwide and it lifted its profit outlook for the year.

Caterpillar has struggled with waning demand since the global economy deteriorated late last year. To cope, it has cut production and thousands of jobs.

TSX gold stocks could be in for some lift as the December bullion contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange gained US$9.10 to US$1,067.20 an ounce while December copper moved 2¢ lower to US$2.94 a pound after surging 12¢ on Monday.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index gained 1% and Hong Kong’s index rose 0.8%.

London’s FTSE 100 added 0.08%, Frankfurt’s DAX pushed up 0.25% while the Paris CAC 40 was ahead 0.34%.

In other corporate news, a Spanish union is planning to strike at an Opel auto plant to protest job cuts planned by Canadian auto parts giant Magna International (TSX:MG.A). Magna has said it wants to lay off 1,350 of the 7,500 workers at Zaragoza and shift part of the factory’s production to Germany as part of its takeover of Opel from General Motors Co.

Air Canada’s (TSX:AC.B) unionized employees are about to become shareholders with a 15% stake in the airline in exchange for agreeing to a pension moratorium. The airline plans to issue next week more than 17.6 million class B shares to a new trust on behalf of its Canadian-based unions.

Swiss drug company Lonza Group has withdrawn a US$485-million takeover offer for Canadian pharmaceutical products company Patheon Inc. (TSX:PTI), after the deal was blocked by investment firm JLL Partners. The New York company is Patheon’s largest investor.