The Toronto stock market headed for a strong open Friday amid higher prices for oil and metals. However, the strength of the day’s trading will hinge largely on market reception to a much-anticipated speech by U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke and whether he signals another round of economic stimulus is in the works.

The Canadian dollar rose 0.22 of a cent to 101 cents US ahead of the latest reading on gross domestic product growth for June.

Economists forecast GDP grew 0.1%, the same reading as May, which would add up to annualized growth of 1.6% in the second quarter, a bit slower than the 1.9% pace from the January-March period.

U.S. futures made solid advances with the Dow Jones industrial futures up 87 points to 13,069, the Nasdaq futures climbed 20 points to 2,773.8 and the S&P 500 futures ran up 8.7 points to 1,405.8.

The TSX is ending the week lower and just slightly above where it started August trading.

Traders had been encouraged for much of the month that signs of a slowing global economy in mid-summer indicated that central banks would step in with more stimulus to keep the recovery on track.

Hopes had risen in particular after the release last week of minutes from the last Fed interest rate meeting Aug. 1 which said a growing number of members wanted to see the central bank do more to help the U.S. economy. And there has been speculation Bernanke would use a speech at the Fed’s annual retreat at Jackson Hole, Wyo., on Friday to signal more assistance, possibly in the form of further quantitative easing. This involves the Fed printing more money to buy bonds.

But late August has seen a string of positive economic data released, and there are concerns that Bernanke will reassure markets that the Fed is ready to help if needed, but that economic conditions now don’t warrant another round of stimulus.

Analysts have also pointed out that the Fed wouldn’t make a commitment to more help before the release next Friday of the non-farm payrolls for August. Job creation data for July beat expectations.

Bernanke’s speech is set to take place at 10 a.m. EDT.

Oil prices were higher with the October crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange ahead 63 cents to US$95.25 a barrel.

Metal prices also gained ground with the December copper contract on the Nymex up one cent to US$3.46 a pound.

December bullion gained $4.70 to US$1,661.80 an ounce.

European bourses were higher as London’s FTSE 100 index gained 0.58%, Frankfurt’s DAX was up 1.38% and the Paris CAC 40 climbed 1.32%.

Earlier, in Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 shed 1.6%, China’s benchmark Shanghai Composite Index was off 0.3%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined 0.4%, Seoul’s Kospi index shed 0.1% and Sydney’s ASX/S&P 200 ended unchanged.

India’s Sensex fell 1% after the government reported disappointing growth of 5.5% for the second quarter of the year, compared to 8% from a year earlier.

South Korea reported July industrial production growth slowed more abruptly than expected, falling to 0.3% over a year earlier from June’s 1.4%.

In corporate news, National Bank of Canada reported after the close Thursday that quarterly profits grew by 13% to $379 million. Adjusting for one-time items it earned $353 million, or $1.98 per diluted share, up from $334 million and beating analyst estimates by eight cents.

However, unlike the five big banks that also reported this week, National is not upping its dividend.

Canada’s five largest banks earned $7.8 billion in cumulative profits in the last quarter.