Source: The Canadian Press

The Toronto stock market headed for a slightly higher open Monday as oil prices rose alongside the possibility that investors may be tempted to do some bargain hunting following sharp losses last week.

The Canadian dollar was down a tenth of a cent to 99 cents US as the greenback strengthened against a variety of currencies including the loonie and the euro. Overseas, worries suggest that Ireland will have to look for outside help to get a handle on its mounting debt.

Meanwhile, investors will be looking to Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan at the open after Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP Billiton withdrew its hostile takeover bid for the fertilizer giant. The company has walked away less than two weeks after Ottawa rejected its US$38.6 billion offer as not having enough net benefit for Canada. Potash shares were down about 0.7% in pre-market trading in New York. BHP Billiton’s shares rose about 1%.

U.S. futures indicated a higher open with the Dow Jones industrials up 28 points to 11,180, the Nasdaq futures gained 11.5 points to 2,145 and the S&P 500 futures were ahead five points to 1,200.

Oil prices moved higher after falling more than 3% on Friday after China said inflation rose to 4.4% in October, boosting concerns about what China may do to slow economic growth, which would undermine demand for crude and other commodities.

The December crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange gained 79 cents to US$85.67 a barrel.

The December copper contract on the Nymex was unchanged at US$3.90 a pound while the December gold contract in New York inched up a dime to US$1,365.60 an ounce.

Stock markets fell sharply last week, with the TSX losing 1.36% and the Dow industrials fell 2.2%, largely on worries about more curbs on lending, which would slow Chinese growth.

Any moves to slow the Chinese economy have been negative for the Toronto market as heavy demand from China has helped raise prices for oil and metals and commodity stocks.

Worries about Europe’s debt crisis also weighed on sentiment.

Investors were also jittery Monday amid reports that the Irish government is in talks with the European officials to discuss the country’s debt position.

Though Irish authorities have claimed that they have made no application to tap a financial support package implemented after the bailout of Greece in May, a number of investors think the country will have no choice but to seek outside help, primarily because of the shaky state of its banks.

“Greece adopted a similar tactic right up until it formally asked for international assistance,” said Ben May, European economist at Capital Economics.

On the economic front, investors will take in U.S. retail sales for October. Economists expect sales rose 0.7% following a 0.6% rise in September.

Overseas, China’s Shanghai Composite Index gained 1% after tumbling more than 5% Friday on expectations Beijing will raise interest rates.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 0.8%, South Korea’s Kospi gained less than 0.1%, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.1% and Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average rose 1.1% as the yen continued to weaken to the relief of the country’s major exporters. Sentiment was also buoyed by the news that the Japanese economy grew by an annualized 3.9% in the third quarter of the year, way ahead of analysts’ expectations for a 2.6% increase.

London’s FTSE 100 index gained 0.26%, Frankfurt’s DAX gained 0.55% while the Paris CAC 40 slipped 0.42%.

In other corporate news, Caterpillar Inc., the world’s largest construction and mining equipment maker, is buying Bucyrus International Inc. for US$7.6 billion in cash. Bucyrus makes surface mining equipment used for mining coal, copper, iron ore, oil sands and other minerals.

Anvil Mining Limited (TSX:AVM) says it made $6.1 million in net income in the third quarter, or four-cents per share, compared to a net loss of $200,000 for the third quarter of 2009. Net copper sales for the quarter totalled $14.9 million and copper production totalled 4,216 tonnes.