Source: The Canadian Press

North American stock markets appeared set to open slightly higher Monday as gold hit a record high and the price of oil inched upward.

Dow Jones futures are higher, moving up 13 points to 10,608, Nasdaq futures edged up 12 points to 2,316 and the S&P 500 ticked up 0.8 of a point to 1,126.

Adding an optimistic note to Monday trading in New York will be IBM’s (NYSE:IMBM) agreement to buy data storage company Netezza Corp. for about US$1.7 billion in cash and a 10% premium over the company’s last closing share price.

The price of oil, a big influence on the Toronto Stock Exchange, was up five cents to US$73.71 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

There were also reports that China is close to a decision on whether it will bid against BHP Billiton’s US$38.6-billion hostile offer for Saskatchewan fertilizer powerhouse PotashCorp.

Gold prices for the December bullion contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange gained $5.50 to US$1,283 an ounce. The price of the precious metal has been soaring in recent sessions, and hit three all-time highs last week alone.

There are no major economic announcements expected Monday, but Statistics Canada will release wholesale trade figures and international transactions in securities for July.

Later this week the U.S. Federal Reserve will meet and traders are anticipating possible language from the U.S. central bank that it might relaunch programs to buy Treasurys and mortgage bonds to further stimulate the struggling economy.

On Friday, Toronto’s S&P/TSX composite index slipped 8.79 points to 12,164.56 after a disappointing reading on U.S. consumer confidence dampened enthusiasm generated by the record quarterly results of tech heavyweight Research In Motion (TSX:RIM).

Overseas, Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 1.3% on Monday, Germany’s DAX index gained 0.6%, and France’s CAC-40 rose 0.7%. The Japanese stock market was closed Monday.