Source: The Canadian Press

The Toronto stock market appeared set to open higher Wednesday amid an upbeat earnings report from technology giant Apple and strength in commodity prices.

Apple blew past expectations with a 61% gain in revenue that set a new record for the company helped by the success of its iPad tablet.

The price of oil should also boost the TSX. The September crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange gained 81 cents to US$78.39 a barrel, driven by a drop in crude inventories and a forecast from the U.S. National Hurricane Center that this year’s hurricane season could be the most intense since 2005 and possibly affect supplies.

The August gold contract on the Nymex added $1.70 to US$1,193.40 an ounce.

The Canadian dollar gained 0.68 cent to 96.36 cents US following a quarter-point interest rate hike by the Bank of Canada on Tuesday.

U.S. investors will be watching the tone Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke strikes in his monetary policy report to a U.S. Senate committee Wednesday. He is scheduled to begin two days of testimony in Congress to discuss the Fed’s view on the strength of the economy. Bernanke is likely to say the economy isn’t headed back into recession, but he is also expected to be cautious in his optimism for near-term growth.

Without any major economic data, markets will also keep an eye on more earnings from U.S. companies.

Ahead of the opening bell, Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 0.3%. Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures rose 0.5%, while Nasdaq 100 index futures rose 0.8%.

Driving the futures were Apple’s second-quarter report, which said net income rose 78% from a year ago to US$3.25 billion, while revenue rose 61% to a record $15.7 billion.

Coca-Cola’s results, released early Wednesday, also came in ahead of forecasts. Income rose 16% on higher sales of soft drinks and juices in every part of the world except Europe.

Internet company Yahoo, on the other hand, was hurt by weak revenue growth.

Traders are trying to get a read on the economy through companies’ profit reports, but earnings have been mixed over the past week, which has led to volatile trading. Profit is mostly improving, but sales are not growing fast enough at some companies to reassure investors the recovery is picking up steam.

In Canadian news, Statistics Canada said wholesale sales slipped 0.1% in May to $44.1 billion because of a sharp decline in the agricultural supplies industry.

Bombardier Inc. (TSX:BBD.B) has raised its forecast for commercial and business aircraft demand over the next two decades. The forecast for the industry as a whole is for 12,800 commercial aircraft of up to 149 seats by 2029, up 400 planes from the previous forecast. That includes 6,700 commercial jets in the 100- to 149-seat category occupied by Bombardier’s new-generation CSeries jet.

And Encana Corp. (TSX:ECA) said foreign exchange and hedging activity dragged it to a $505-million net loss in the second quarter, compared with a year-earlier profit of $92 million.

Encana’s revenue after royalties was $1.47 billion, down about $1 billion from the year-earlier period, before its oil business was spun off into Cenovus.