North American stock markets are expected to open higher Tuesday after a mild retreat yesterday.

Tech bellwether Nokia has maintained its second-quarter earnings target, but cautionst hat sales growth in its core mobile-phone division could be below its earlier forecasts.

In economic news, industrial capacity utilization increased only marginally from January to March in the wake of weakness in American demand and the rising value of the Canadian dollar, Statistics Canada reported Tuesday.

Industries operated at 82.8% capacity in the first quarter, up slightly from 82.5% in the fourth quarter of 2002.

Contributing to the slight increase was domestic demand, supported by personal spending and investment in residential construction.

In Europe the Paris’s CAC-40 index is up 21.85 points to 3,077.08. The Frankfurt DAX 30 is up 36.23 points at 3,130.99.

London’s FTSE 100 index is flat 4,129.1. On Monday, the U.K. said it won’t abandon its pound for the euro until its economy converges more closely with that of the 12-country euro zone.

Overnight key indexes fell in Tokyo and Hong Kong. Japan’s Nikkei stock average of 225 selected issues fell 33.64 points to 8,789.09.

In Hong Kong, the main Hang Seng Index slipped 29.79 points to 9,703.72.