Source: The Canadian Press

The Toronto stock market headed for a higher open on Monday with investors reassured by a weekend meeeting of G20 finance ministers which promised to avoid competitive devaluations of their currencies.

There have been growing concerns that countries would artificially drive the value of their currencies lower, which in turn could derail the global economic recovery.

However, with no concrete guidelines to go by, the U.S. dollar resumed its fall, which drove the Canadian dollar and commodities higher.

The loonie was ahead 0.75 of a cent to 98.13 cents US.

U.S. futures also jumped with the Dow Jones industrial futures ahead 59 points to 11,149, the Nasdaq futures gained 10.25 points to 2,114 and the S&P 500 futures were up 7.2 points to 1,188.

Analysts said firmer guidelines may yet be delivered at next month’s meeting of world leaders in South Korea. For the time being, though, the promises were enough to help investors look past immediate threats of a currency war and focus on the main economic event on the horizon — the Federal Reserve’s expected expansion of the U.S. money supply, an attempt to boost growth that markets fear could also weaken the dollar.

Such a move could be announced as early as Nov. 3 when the Fed makes its next announcement on interest rates.

“The agreement the finance ministers reached is being interpreted by the market as a go-ahead to the U.S. to further devalue the dollar, that the developing countries won’t partake in a competitive currency devaluation,” said Victor Shum, an energy analyst with Pervin & Gertz in Singapore.

“It’s a signal to the market that some more weakening of the U.S. dollar will probably be tolerated by everybody else.”

Resource stocks should give a solid boost to the TSX at the open as the December crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange gained 53 cents to US$82.22 a barrel.

The December gold contract on the Nymex was ahead $19.20 to US$1,344.30 an ounce while the December copper contract in New York ran ahead eight cents to US$3.87 a pound.

The dollar hit a new 15-year low against the Japanese yen, which hurt Tokyo’s benchmark Nikkei 225 stock index, which bucked gains across Asia by closing down 0.3%.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 1.3% to 4,710.00 amid news the Singapore Exchange is making a US$8.3 billion takeover offer for ASX, the operator of the Australian stock market.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng climbed 0.9% while the Shanghai Composite Index vaulted 2.6%.

London’s FTSE 100 index gained 0.6%, Frankfurt’s DAX was ahead 0.62% while the Paris CAC 40 advanced 0.42%.

In corporate news, First Capital Realty Inc. (TSX:FCR) has acquired two shopping centres in Toronto for a total of $77.9 million.