Source: The Canadian Press

The Toronto stock market headed for a flat open amid weak commodity prices ahead of data expected to show tepid economic growth in the U.S. during the second quarter.

The Canadian dollar was down 0.21 to 94.42 cents US.

U.S. futures were slightly higher ahead of the release of the latest estimate of gross domestic product and a speech by U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke.

The Dow Jones industrial futures were up 25 points to 9,992, the Nasdaq futures rose 8.5 points to 1,776 and the S&P 500 futures gained 3.2 points to 1,048.

The U.S. Commerce Department’s latest estimate of the economy’s growth from April through June, as measured by the gross domestic product, is expected to show that GDP rose at a very modest annual rate of 1.4%. The original GDP report pegged second quarter growth at 2.4%.


Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is delivering a speech later in the morning that investors hope will shed light on how weak the U.S. economy really is and whether the Fed may take more steps to revive it.

Analysts, however, caution that the Fed is overall reluctant to loosen its monetary policy significantly.

“Bernanke is likely to keep the door open to such a move, but he will also stress that this is conditional on the data getting sufficiently worse to warrant this,” said Daragh Maher, foreign exchange analyst at Credit Agricole.

The October crude contract on the New York Mercantile exchange was unchanged at US$73.36 a barrel.

Crude has tumbled from a high of $82.55 a barrel earlier this month, drawing buyers in the past two days on the expectation that prices will rebound again.

The December bullion contract on the Nymex gained $1 to US$1,238.70 an ounce while September copper was unchanged at US$3.30 a pound.

The TSX closed little changed on Thursday, weighed down by Royal Bank delivering fiscal third quarter earnings that missed expectations.

It has been a mixed bag for banks’ quarterly earnings reports this week. CIBC (TSX:CM) and National Bank (TSX:NA) handed in earnings that beat analyst forecasts while Bank of Montreal (TSX:BMO) and Royal Bank missed estimates.

TD Bank (TSX:TD) and Scotiabank (TSX:BNS) report earnings next week.

In other corporate news, Com Dev International (TSX:CDV) warned Thursday the latest quarter will produce a loss instead of an expected profit and its 2010 annual revenue will be lower than last year’s, rather than modestly higher. Analysts had projected the Ontario-based satellite technology maker to report a profit for the fiscal third quarter ended July 31 and substantially higher revenue than it is now projecting for the three-month period.

3Par Inc. said Friday it has accepted computer maker Dell Inc.’s new offer of US$1.8 billion which matches a bid for the data storage provider from Hewlett-Packard Co.

In overseas trading, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average recovered from early losses to close 1% higher, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.1% and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was up 0.3%.

London’s FTSE 100 index added 0.12%, Frankfurt’s DAX inched up 0.01% while the Paris CAC 40 was 0.06% higher.