Source: The Canadian Press

The Toronto stock market will likely get support from resource stocks at the open as the U.S. dollar weakened and prices for oil and copper strengthened while investors also took in major dealmaking in the mining sector.

The Canadian dollar moved up 0.77 to 98.4 cents US.

U.S. futures signalled a sharply higher open to the session amid confidence that Ireland will work out the details for a bailout and strong interest in General Motors’ initial public offering.

The Dow Jones futures gained 84 points to 11,079, the Nasdaq futures were up 24.5 points to 2,122 and the S&P 500 futures advanced 12.2 points to 1,190.

Hopes for some sort of Irish deal grew after the country’s central bank governor, Patrick Honohan, said he expects the country will accept a loan worth tens of billions of euros. Also Britain, which is not part of the 16-nation bloc that uses the euro, offered to provide additional support.

Markets had been roiled in recent days by fears that Ireland would be the latest European country to face a possible default, following Greece’s near collapse in May.

Ireland is struggling under the weight of bailing out five Irish banks at a cost of at least US$62 billion.

Meanwhile, GM was set to return as a publicly traded company with an offering that could be worth US$23 billion as the automaker emerges from taxpayer-funded bankruptcy.

Shares were offered at US$33 apiece, and it could be the largest U.S. IPO in history including the sale of preferred shares.

Besides trading in New York, General Motors is to trade on the Toronto stock market under the symbol GMM.U.

Elsewhere, a deal is in the works that would form one of the world’s largest publicly traded producers of metallurgical coal.

Walter Energy Inc. (NYSE:WLT) is in negotiations to buy Vancouver-based Western Coal Corp. for stock and cash worth $3.3 billion.

Commodity prices rebounded following a series of declines as the U.S. dollar strengthened as the Irish debt crisis grew more serious and investors worried about lower demand from China as the country looked likely to make further moves to slow the economy after October inflation came in at a 25-month high.

The December crude oil contract rose $1.36 to US$81.80 following a drop of about 8% in the last week.

The December copper contract on the Nymex rose seven cents to US$3.80, still sharply from a recent high of US$4.04 on Nov. 9.

The December bullion contract in New York gained $18.60 to US$1,355.50 an ounce.

In other news from the resource sector, Emera Inc. (TSX:EMA), the owner of Nova Scotia Power, says a $6.2-billion deal has been reached to develop power from the proposed Lower Churchill hydroelectric project in Labrador. A link would also be developed to transmit electricity to Nova Scotia.

Buying sentiment was also lifted by U.S. data on weekly jobless insurance claims which came in better than expected, with the four-week average falling to its lowest level since late 2008.

Earlier in Asia, the Nikkei 225 stock average jumped 2.1% while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index closed up 1.8%.

In China, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.9% while the Shenzhen Composite Index for China’s second, smaller exchange jumped 1.8%.

London’s FTSE 100 index and Frankfurt’s DAX were up 1.38% while the Paris CAC 40 rose 2.45%.