Source: The Canadian Press

The Toronto stock market headed for a slightly lower open Thursday, with commodity prices generally weak, a day before key jobs data coming out in Canada and the U.S.

Investors also took in earnings reports from top Canadian corporations, including news of a dividend hike from telecom giant BCE Inc. (TSX:BCE).

The Canadian dollar was ahead 0.47 of a cent to 98.74 cents US, as a string of gains in commodity prices lately has helped pushed the loonie to its highest level since mid-May.

U.S. futures also pointed to a mainly weak open with the Dow Jones industrial futures down one point to 10,634, the Nasdaq futures rose 4.75 points to 1,910 while the S&P 500 futures dipped 0.1 of a point fo 1,124.5.

With unemployment the biggest hurdle to a stronger U.S. recovery, traders are expecting to see private sector job growth of about 90,000 in July when the government releases its non-farm payrolls report Friday.

Meanwhile, Statistics Canada is expected to report that the economy cranked out another 15,000 jobs last month.

Oil prices slipped for a second day after data showed rising gasoline inventories in the United States. The September crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange declined 43 cents to US$82.04 a barrel.

The December bullion contract on the Nymex gained $2.40 to US$1,198.30 an ounce while the September copper contract in New York slipped three cents to US$3.37 a pound.

It’s a heavy earnings day on the TSX and BCE could be in for gains at the open after the country’s largest telecommunications company said it is boosting its annual dividend 5% to $1.83 a share. The company reported that quarterly earnings came in at $590 million, up 71% from a year earlier.

Revenue at its main subsidiary, Bell Canada, rose 4.5% to $3.79 billion on growth in its TV and wireless divisions. BCE added that it sees 2010 revenue growth the Bell unit at between 2 and 3%, higher than its previous estimate of 1 to 2%.

Elsewhere, Air Canada (TSX:AC.B) says deeper foreign exchange losses pulled the company to a net loss of $203 million in the second quarter, compared with net income of $155 million as year ago. Since Air Canada operates around the world and collects much of its revenues in U.S. dollars and foreign currencies, a stronger loonie reduces top-line revenues on its books when translated into Canadian dollars.

Operating revenues increased to $2.63 billion from $2.33 billion.

Canaccord Financial reported a big drop in its profits in the latest quarter, mainly because of acquisition-related costs from the Vancouver company’s takeover of Genuity Capital Markets. Canaccord (TSX:CF) earned $4.9 million compared with profits of 9.1 million a year ago. Year-over-year revenues rose 10.5% to $151.9 million.

And after the markets closed Wednesday, Sun Life Financial Inc.(TSX:SLF), Canada’s third largest insurance company, reported its net profits fell sharply in the second quarter as volatile stock markets and a big loss in its U.S. operations squeezed the company’s business.

Earnings came in at $213 million compared with profits of $591 million a year ago.

Sun Life said its total adjusted revenue in the quarter fell to $5.75 billion from $6.2 billion a year earlier.

In overseas trading, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 stock index gained 1.7% with shares boosted by gains in automakers.

Optimism surrounding the car manufacturers came after Toyota reported a quarterly profit of 190.5 billion yen (US$2.2 billion), reversing from red ink a year earlier, and raised its annual profit forecast to 340 billion yen (US$4 billion) from 310 billion yen (US$3.6 billion).

Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed flat and the Shanghai Composite Index dropped 0.7%.

London’s FTSE 100 index added 0.3%, Frankfurt’s DAX gained 0.59% and the Paris CAC 40 was ahead 0.91%.

The modest advance came as officials from the EU and the International Monetary Fund said Greece has made considerable progress in dealing with its financial crisis, though they noted that key challenges and risks remained.