U.S. markets may bounce back Monday ahead of holiday-shortened trading week helped by sliding oil prices.

Light, sweet crude for January delivery dropped 42¢ to US$45.86 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midmorning in Europe.

Kicking off this week’s economics reports, Statistics Canada said wholesale sales roses slightly in October after a steep drop in September. October sales edged up 0.2%, following September’s decline of 1.8%.

However, StatsCan adi inventories rose sharply for a second consecutive month, climbing 1.1%.

South of the border, the US. Commerce Department is slated to release November leading economic indicators at 10:00. Economists expect the gauge to climb 0.1%.

Canadian markets closed slightly higher Friday as the price of oil moved past the US$45 a barrel level, while U.S. stocks were hit by a surprise announcement from drug giant Pfizer Inc.

At close, the S&P/TSX composite index was up 5.98 points or 0.07% to 9,122.62 for a gain on the week of 1.8%.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite added 11.66 points or 0.68% to 1,738.63.

The Canadian dollar moved 0.40 of a cent higher to US81.49¢.

On Wall Street, stocks dropped in very heavy trading Friday as fresh concerns about pharmaceuticals, coming after Pfizer announced a troublesome health study of its Celebrex drug, overshadowed news of subdued growth in consumer prices and inflation

The Dow Jones industrial lost 55.72 points or 0.52% to 10,649.92 for a 1% increase on the week. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index dipped 10.95 point s or 0.51% to 2,135.20 and the S&P 500 lost 8.99 points or 0.75% to 1,194.22.

Despite moderate losses during the session, analysts remained bullish on the overall market.

The markets were volatile due to a “quadruple-witching” day on Wall Street — the quarterly expiration of index futures and options, as well as individual stock futures and options. Stocks can vary widely and trade quickly on heavy volume as investors cash in their options or futures and sign up for new contracts.