Despite some mixed economic numbers out of the U.S., Wall Street futures are up, pointing to a positive start to the trading day.

The U.S. Commerce Department is reporting that orders for big-ticket items fell in August, the first time in four months, largely due to a drop in demand for automobiles.

Orders for durable goods decreased by 0.9% to $173.32 billion last month. This followed a 1.5% rise in July. Economists had expected a 0.7% increase in August orders.

Meanwhile, initial jobless claims dropped by 19,000 to a seven-month low of 381,000, says the U.S. Labor Department. It’s the first time in a month that the number has been below 400,000, but the good news is dampened by the fact that Hurricane Isabel, which buffeted 10 states along the East Coast, accounted for at least half the decline last week. The storm shut down many state government offices.

Here at home, Statistics Canada is reporting that during the second consecutive quarter, the value of Canada’s assets abroad, as well as its foreign liabilities, dropped dramatically, mostly because of the strengthening Canadian dollar. As a result of the decline in international assets and liabilities, Canada’s net liability to foreign residents — the difference between its external assets and foreign liabilities — reached $227.4 billion at the end of June, the highest level since the first quarter of 2000.

Asian markets fell during their Thursday trading. Japan’s Nikkei fell 192.25 points, or 1.8%, to 10,310.04 after news that OPEC is going to reduce oil quotas by a total of 900,000 barrels a day in November. Japanese carmaker and airline stocks were hit by the prospect of higher oil prices.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index slipped 9.37 points to 11,286.52.

In Europe at midday, London’s FTSE 100 index is off 0.6%, declining 24.5 points to 4,211.9. The Paris CAC40 is also down. It has lost 1.2%. Frankfurt’s DAX is up 0.6%.

On Wednesday, North American markets fell sharply following the OPEC announcement. The Toronto stock market’s main index fell 41.7 points to 7,602.34. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 150.53 points to 9,425.51. The Nasdaq composite index lost 58.02 points to 1,843.70 – its worst loss in almost 15 months. The S&P 500 fell 19.65 to 1,009.38.