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Overseas stock markets were positive and Wall Street indexes pointed to gains at the open, while the Canadian dollar gained on rising commodity prices.

Crude oil was up 92 cents at US$107.15 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while gold advanced $7.00 to US$920.20 an ounce.

The loonie traded at 99.25 cents, up 0.17 cent from Friday.

Stock investors were looking at deal by Swiss pharmaceutical maker Novartis AG to spend about US$38 billion in a two-stage bid for a majority stake in American eye-care company Alcon Inc.

First-quarter earnings season begins after the close when Alcoa Inc., traditionally the first big American company to release results, discloses its quarterly financials.

Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 1.2 per cent and the Hong Kong Hang Seng added 1.3 per cent.

The FTSE 100 was up 0.6 per cent near midday in London, while Germany's DAX rose 0.8 per cent and the Paris CAC-40 advanced one per cent.

Commodity prices were up as last week's feeble American employment data increased the likelihood of further U.S http://payday-badcredit.com. interest rate cuts, which would tend to reduce the value of the American dollar in which most commodities are valued.

The U.S. Labour Department said Friday that employers cut 80,000 jobs last month, many more than analysts had expected, raising the unemployment rate to 5.1 per cent and confirming perceptions of a sharp slowdown in the world's largest economy.

American stock markets closed last week flat on that news, with New York's Dow Jones industrial average slipping 16.61 to 12,609.42.

Meanwhile, the Toronto market gained 116.90 points Friday to 13,668.19, its highest level since late February, when weakness in financial shares yanked the index down.

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