North American stocks are likely to open weaker Tuesday, with builder U.S. Lennar reporting a big drop in profit.

The U.S. home-building sector will be in renewed focus after Lennar posted a 73% first-quarter profit decline — which was expected by analysts — and withdrew its 2007 earnings guidance.

Hearings on subprime lending will continue in Washington D.C., and March consumer confidence figures are due to be released by the U.S. Conference Board around 10:00 ET.

Here at home, Statistics Canada reported that consumers shelled out more money at gas pumps and home furnishings stores in 2005, pushing annual retail sales to their fastest growth rate since 2002.

Canadian retailers reported operating revenues of $403.6 billion in 2005, up 5.4% from the previous year. The gain was well above the average annual growth rate of 4.7% between 2000 and 2005.

The Canadian dollar rose in the wake of the Quebec election.

Premier Jean Charest led the Liberals to re-election Monday night, but with a minority government this time. Mario Dumont’s Action democratique du Quebec becomes the official Opposition.

The loonie opened at US86.37¢, up 0.29 of a cent.

In other earnings news, DaimlerChrysler said it is pushing back its first-quarter results release date to May 15 from April 26, blaming the delay on the time needed to switch to IFRS accounting from U.S. GAAP accounting.

Crude-oil prices fell 39¢ to US$62.52 a barrel, dipping below three-month highs reached a day earlier and reflecting hopes that Iran’s detention of 15 British naval personnel may be resolved peacefully.

International stock markets were mixed. The Nikkei 225 lost 0.9% in Tokyo while the Shanghai Composite rose to its fifth straight record high. The German DAX 30 rose 0.5%.

Toronto stocks moved higher Monday, primarily on the strength of the resource sectors.

The S&P/TSX composite index gained 65.22, or 0.49%, to 13,302.88.

Six of the 10 TSX main indexes closed higher.

The materials index gained 1.28%.

Anglo-Swiss miner Xstrata Plc intends to acquire Toronto-based LionOre Mining International Ltd. Shares in LionOre Mining surged $1.80, or 10.30%, to $19.29

The S&P/TSX Venture composite index rose 20.49, or 0.65%, to 3,175.03.

In New York, markets ended mixed and little changed as investors remained nervous about the housing sector, despite encouraging economic reports elsewhere.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 11.94 points at 12,469.07, the S&P 500 edged up 1.39 point at 1,437.50, and the Nasdaq composite index gained 6.70 to 2,455.63.