Wall Street stock futures pointed lower Friday after disappointing results from Microsoft and Amazon.

After markets closed Thursday, software giant Microsoft reported a 29% profit fall, leaving its results well short of expectations.

Amazon.com posted a 10% fall in earnings on weaker-than-forecast revenue.

Financial-sector earnings late Thursday also disappointed investors. American Express reported a 48% profit fall though it beat expectations, and Capital One said it swung to a US$276 million loss.

In Friday’s M&A news, grocery store operator Loblaw said it will pay $225 million for T&T Supermarket Inc., a 17-store chain that is Canada’s largest Asia food retailer.

The Canadian dollar opened at US92.28¢, up 0.24 of a cent from Thursday’s close.

In commodities news, oil prices climbed 18¢ to US$67.34 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei stock average jumped 1.6%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index gained 0.8%. The Hang Seng stands at its highest level in 10 months.

In late morning trading in Europe, the UK’s FTSE 100 rose 0.6%, Germany’s DAX index was up 0.5%, and France’s CAC-40 added 0.5%.

The Toronto Stock Exchange soared more than 2% on Thursday as the Bank of Canada confirmed that the recession had ended and predicted third quarter GDP growth of 1.3%.

The S&P/TSX composite index surged 243.33 points, or 2.3%, to close at 10,675.68.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index also finished higher on Thursday, gaining 14.34 points, or 1.3%, to close at 1,137.79.

In New York, U.S. stock markets also finished with strong gains, boosted by better-than-expected earnings reports and news of strong sales of existing homes in June.

The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 188.03 points, or 2.1%, to 9,069.29, topping the 9,000-mark for the first time since January.

The S&P 500 index rose 22.22 points, or 2.3%, to finish at 976.29.

The Nasdaq composite rose 47.22 points, or 2.5%, to end at 1,973.60.

IE