Source: The Canadian Press

Energy stocks could push the Toronto stock market to a lower start to the trading day as oil prices backed off amid data showing rising American crude supplies.

The Canadian dollar moved up 0.45 of a cent to 97.26 cents US.

U.S. futures pointed to a weak start with the Dow Jones industrial futures ahead 10 points to 10,368, the Nasdaq futures gained 3.25 points to 1,836.25 while the S&P 500 futures added 0.3 of a point to 1,089.4.

The benchmark crude for September delivery was down 69 cents at $75.08 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after a 53-cent rise Tuesday broke a five day losing streak on demand concerns.

Prices headed lower on Wednesday after the American Petroleum Institute said late Tuesday that crude inventories rose sharply, by 5.87 million barrels, last week, against market expectations for a drop in supplies.

Inventories of gasoline and distillates also rose, the API said.

The Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration reports its weekly supply data — the market benchmark — later Wednesday.

Other commodity prices were weak with September copper in New York unchanged at US$3.34 a pound while the December bullion contract on the Nymex dipped $3.20 to US$1,225.10 an ounce.

The expected tepid start to the session follows a day of sharp gains on North American markets Tuesday, with the TSX surging 176 points in the wake of a US$38.6 billion offer for Canadian fertilizer giant PotashCorp (TSX:POT) by Australian resource company BHP Billiton. Potash promptly rejected the US$130 per share cash offer, calling it grossly inadequate. BHP Billiton said Wednesday it will take its offer directly to the shareholders of the Saskatchewan company.

And New York markets also finished the day sharply higher following better than expected earnings reports from retail bellwethers Walmart and Home Depot and some positive economic data.

The Federal Reserve reported U.S. industrial production grew 1.1% in July, helped by auto plants that kept operating when they normally shutter for summer renovations. It was a rare piece of positive news from the world’s biggest economy, which is struggling to maintain the momentum of recovery amid high unemployment.

There were no new big economic reports planned Wednesday giving investors little incentive to keep buying.

In overseas trading, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average gained 0.9%.

But the Shanghai Composite Index declined 0.1% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng retreated 0.2% amid local concerns that Beijing’s credit curbs are causing growth to slow too rapidly.

London’s FTSE 100 index declined 0.63%, Frankfurt’s DAX dipped 0.01% while the Paris CAC 40 was off 0.22%.

On the corporate front, Deere & Co. says its third-quarter profit grew 47% with American and Canadian farmers buying enough of the company’s large agricultural equipment to offset weak demand in Europe. The company generated US$617 million net income, or $1.44 per share, in the quarter. That’s up from $420 million, or 99 cents per share, a year ago. Deere says global revenue spiked 16% to US$6.84 billion.

Insurance giant Manulife Financial Corp. (TSX: MFC) plans to issue nearly $1 billion in unsecured senior notes just weeks after it posted a $2.4-billion loss in its second quarter. Spokesman David Paterson says the company is “taking advantage of low interest rates to improve its debt rates while it can.” The notes will pay a fixed rate of 4.079% and mature in 2015.