North American markets poised for gains ahead of crude inventory report

August, 20, 2008 - 08:16 am THE CANADIAN PRESS

An investor smiles as she looks at the stock price monitor at a private security company Wednesday Aug. 20, 2008 in Shanghai, China. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

TORONTO - North American stock markets appeared headed higher Wednesday ahead of a weekly report on U.S. crude inventories, which could have an impact on energy stocks.

The Canadian dollar opened Wednesday at 94 cents US, down 0.25 of a cent. The U.S. dollar stood at 106.38 cents Cdn, up 0.28 of a cent.

Oil prices continued their advance. While oil is down about US$30 from its July 11 high of $147 a barrel, investors have watched crude log gains the past few days.

Light, sweet crude rose 77 cents to $115.30 per barrel in premarket electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Investors are awaiting weekly government inventory figures due after the start of trading.

A London-based spokesman for Petro-Canada (TSX:PCA) says the company is carefully monitoring a fire at a major oil-storage facility in Libya.

The fire is at a storage tank that's fed by fields operated by Calgary-based Petro-Canada and other oil producers.

Petro-Canada is currently using alternative storage capacity to handle the oil it produces in Libya and the impact on the company's operations has been minimal so far and nobody has been hurt.

Global steel maker ArcelorMittal is teaming with a small Canadian company to develop a US$250-million iron ore port in Brazil.

The port will be built on lands in the state of Rio de Janeiro that were acquired by Vancouver-headquartered Adriana Resources Inc. (TSXV:ADI) in January.

ArcelorMittal will acquire 80 per cent ownership of the lands and buy 20 per cent of Adriana for a total of about $65.5 million.

U.S. stocks appeared headed for a rebound Wednesday after an upbeat profit report from Hewlett-Packard Co. offered investors reassurance about the economy.

Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 46, or 0.41 per cent, to 11,402 after the Dow fell about 310 points over the past two sessions. Standard & Poor's 500 index futures rose 4.60, or 0.36 per cent, to 1,273.00. Nasdaq 100 index futures rose 8.25, or 0.43 per cent, to 1,927.50.

Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 0.10 per cent. In afternoon trading, Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.95 per cent, Germany's DAX index advanced 0.46 per cent, and France's CAC-40 rose 0.68 per cent.

On Tuesday, a sharp selloff in bank stocks sent the Toronto stock market lower Tuesday, but TSX losses were limited by solid gains in energy and mining stocks.

Toronto's S&P/TSX composite index dropped 55.52 points to 13,063.85. The TSX Venture Exchange closed at 1,901.73, down 21.91 points.