North American markets are expected to slide Tuesday morning amid fresh concerns about rising oil prices. U.S. markets were closed yesterday for the Independence Day holiday.

Crude-oil futures continued to climb early Tuesday, rising US88¢ to US$39.27 a barrel, following reports of sabotage on Iraq’s oil pipelines and concerns about oil output and exports from Russia

There are no major economic releases from Statistics Canada this morning.

South of the border, n economic news, the Institute for Supply Management is slated to release its June nonmanufacturing survey at 10:00 ET. Economists are looking for a falloff to 64.0 from 65.2 in May.

In this morning’s business news, Royal Bank said spending by consumers and businesses will help push Canada’s economy to grow by 3.2% in 2004 and 3.6 % in 2005, while anticipated interest rate hikes will be “slow and moderate.”

Later Tuesday morning, shareholders of Iamgold Corp. and Wheaton River Minerals Ltd. of Vancouver are scheduled to vote on a merger..

Wheaton River shares were up 3¢ Monday at $3.84, while shares of Iamgold were down 3¢ to $7.40.

In Asia, markets closed mixed overnight. Tokyo’s Nikkei slipped 66.44 points to 11,475.27 points.

In Hong Kong, shares closed slightly higher. The Hang Seng rose 31.97 points to 12,284.08.

Monday was a quiet day for Toronto stocks as the S&P/TSX finished down a mere 1.31 points at 8,486.00, while the S&P/TSX Venture composite index lost 3.11 points to close at 1,576.15.

With U.S. markets closed, trading on Bay Street was light, and after a strong start, the TSX drifted.

The major mover one again was Nortel Networks Corp. whose shares fell 18¢ to $5.87. Monday’s losses added to a drop on Friday after a story in the Wall Street Journal was published about the company’s recent history of financial reporting problems.