The Toronto stock market appeared ready to move higher Friday morning on a boost from a surprise improvement in the U.S. jobless rate.
The U.S. Labour Department said employers added 165,000 jobs in April, while both February and March numbers were also better than first thought. The gains trimmed the U.S. unemployment rate to a four-year low of 7.5 per cent.
The Canadian dollar was down 0.28 of a cent at 98.90 cents US.
Dow Jones industrial futures were flat at 14,760, while the S&P futures were down half a point at 1,591.80 and the Nasdaq futures rose 1.25 points to 2,903.25.
Commodity prices were higher after the weak economic data Wednesday had pushed commodities sharply lower.
The June crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose $1.18 to US$95.17 a barrel.
July copper gained 1.6 cents to US$3.26 a pound while June gold bullion was off $3 to US$1,464.60 an ounce.
In earnings, Air Canada (TSX:AC.B) says it narrowed its net loss to $260 million or 95 cents per diluted share in the first quarter. That was down from a net loss of $274 million or 99 cents per share in the same 2012 quarter.
Gains in Europe were limited somewhat by the European Union’s downgrade of its economic forecasts. In its spring update, the EU said it expected the 17-country eurozone’s economy to shrink 0.4 per cent this year, 0.1 percentage points worse than its February prediction.
By midday in Europe, Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 0.2 per cent at 6,475.93, while Germany’s DAX was 0.3 per cent higher at 7,982.51 and France’s CAC-40 up 0.1 per cent to 3,864.43.
Earlier, in Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.1 per cent to close at 22,689.96. South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.4 per cent to 1,965.71 and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was nearly unchanged at 5,129.50.