U.S. stock futures edged higher Thursday ahead of tomorrow’s September U.S. employment report.

In today’s economic news, the European Central Bank kept interest rates on hold, leaving the key policy rate unchanged at 4.00%, as expected. Earlier, the Bank of England held its benchmark interest rate steady at 5.75%.

Here at home, the value of Canadian building permits surpassed the $6 billion mark for the fourth consecutive month in August with strong performances in both residential and non-residential sectors, Statistics Canada said.

MunCanicipalities issued permits worth $6.3 billion, up 1.4% from $6.2 billion in July, StatsCan said.

The Canadian dollar opened unchanged at US$1.0016.

Wednesday night, Bank of Canada Deputy Governor David Longworth told an Investment Industry Association of Canada event in Toronto that market liquidity, which has been a concern since the credit crisis in August, should return to normal over time.

In earnings news, Research in Motion is expected to release third quarter earnings later today.

Crude-oil prices slid 30¢ to US$79.64 a barrel, a day after the U.S. Department of Energy reported an unexpected increase in crude oil inventories and a decline in supplies of gasoline and distillates.

Overseas, Hong Kong stocks closed sharply lower following a report that the Chinese government is set to ban state-owned companies from launching simultaneous initial public offerings on Hong Kong and mainland stock exchanges. The Hang Seng index declined 1.84%.

In Europe, the UK FTSE 100 added 0.5% and the German DAX 30 declined 0.1% after the central bank rate decisions.

Toronto stocks retreated for the second day in a row Wednesday as investors moved to lock in profits.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 131.88 points, or 0.9%, at 14,020.85.

Overall, eight of the 10 main groups finished lower.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index eased 3.63 points to 2,839.77.

The Canadian dollar moved down 0.08 cent to US$1.0016.

In New York, U.S. stocks dropped on Wednesday after a broker’s weak outlook for chip makers drove a sell-off of technology shares.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 79.26 points, or 0.56%, to end at 13,968.05. The S&P 500 was down 7.04 points, or 0.46%, at 1,539.59. The Nasdaq composite index was down 17.68 points, or 0.64%, at 2,729.43.