The Toronto stock market appeared set to open relatively flat Tuesday as oil prices extended their slide, though data on U.S. consumer confidence and home prices could improve sentiment.

The Canadian dollar was ahead 0.08 of a cent at 97.24 cents US.

U.S. futures were higher with the Dow Jones industrial futures up 16 points at 12,447. The Nasdaq futures gained five points to 2,532 and the S&P 500 futures rose 1.75 points to 1,308.25.

Later Tuesday, Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller issues its 20-city index of changes in home prices from March to April. From February to March, prices rose in most major cities for the first time in seven months. Since then, the supply of homes for sale has fallen, which could help boost prices further this year.

Later, the Conference Board, a private U.S. research group, reports its monthly consumer confidence index. Economists expect the board to report that the index fell to 63.2 in June from 64.9 in May.

The index is well below a reading of 90, which would indicate a healthy economy, a level it hasn't seen since the recession that began in December 2007. However, it has been moving in a generally positive direction since striking an all-time low of 25.3 in February 2009.

In commodities, the August crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange was down 13 cents at US$79.08 a barrel, adding to the decline from $110 that began in late February.

August gold was down $8 at US$1,580.40 an ounce, while July copper rose two cents to US$3.28 a pound.