North American stocks look poised to open lower Friday, while the Canadian dollar rose ahead of the Canada Day long weekend.

Canadian stock markets will be closed Monday for the national holiday.

In this morning’s economic news, economic activity remained essentially unchanged in April after growing 0.3% in March, Statistics Canada reported today.

Significant drops in wholesale trade, oil and gas exploration, and motor vehicle manufacturing dampened growth. Excluding these declines, the Canadian economy expanded by 0.3%, StatsCan said.

After trading above US95¢ in overnight action, the Canadian dollar opened at US94.77, up 0.38 of a cent. That level challenges a 30-year closing high of US94.52¢ reached earlier this month.

South of the border, a host of economic reports are due Friday, including data on May personal income and consumer spending, May construction spending, a Chicago-area manufacturing poll for June and the final reading of the June University of Michigan consumer confidence survey.

In earnings news, Research In Motion reported after the closing bell that first-quarter revenues soared to US$1.08 billion, up 76.5% from the same period of 2006, as net income jumped to $223.2 million. The company also announced it plans to split its stock on a three-for-one basis. RIM shares closed up 38¢ to $175.22 ahead of the report.

RIM will be monitoring progress of the iPhone from Apple, which goes on sale in the U.S. Friday evening.

Crude-oil futures rose 69¢ to $70.26 a barrel.

Overseas, the Nikkei 225 closed the week higher by 1.1% on Friday. The FTSE 100 was down 0.5% in London.

Yesterday’s decision from the U.S. Federal Reserve to keep its key interest rate unchanged left New York markets relatively flat while Toronto stocks closed lower.

As expected, the Fed kept benchmark rate steady at 5.25%.

In Toronto, the S&P/TSX composite index closed down 26.25 points to at 13,715.67.

The S&P/TSX Venture composite index rose 4.17 points to 3,134.03.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrials were down 5.45 at 13,422.28. The Nasdaq composite index climbed 3.02 to 2,608.37 and the S&P 500 index lost 0.63 to 1,505.71.