North American markets are expected to open higher Thursday, lifted by positive reports on U.S. gross domestic product and initial jobless claims.

U.S. GDP rose by 1.9% in the first quarter, according to the Commerce Department. The figure was revised from an earlier report of a 1.6% increase, and will be revised again next month. In the previous quarter, GDP rose 1.4%.

Meanwhile, U.S. initial jobless claims dropped by 9,000 to 424,000 in the week ended May 24, after rising 7,000 a week earlier, the Labor Department said. The four-week moving average, which evens out weekly fluctuations, fell to a six-week low of 427,000.

In Canada, Statistics Canada reported manufacturers’ prices weakened 1.4% in April, in large part because of a stronger Canadian dollar relative to the US dollar.

On an annual basis, the Industrial Product Price Index declined 0.1%, after eight months of increases. Prices of raw materials were down 6.5% from March, but up 3.4% from April 2002.

In a separate release, StatsCan said Canada’s current account surplus with the rest of the world grew $3.2 billion to $8.0 billion on a seasonally adjusted basis in the first quarter. This was the largest surplus in the last seven quarters. The goods surplus rose $1.9 billion, as imports dropped $1.3 billion. The balance on investment income improved.

In overseas trading Tokyo’s Nikkei index rose for a second day to 8,375.36 and the Hong Kong Hang Seng index slipped 2.07 points to 9,508.55.

Afternoon trading in London is flat. The FTSE 100 index is up only one point to 4,072.9 early in the afternoon.