North American stocks may climb Wednesday as technology bellwether Cisco Systems lifted its revenue outlook.

In today’s earnings news, U.S. luxury home builder Toll Brothers said its home-building revenue fell 21% in its fiscal third quarter as contract signings continue to drop.

Sprint Nextel reported a 95% drop in quarterly earnings as a result of higher costs and expenses and a lower contribution from operations.

Biovail reported 20% declines in second-quarter revenue and earnings amid generic erosion of the Wellbutrin XL franchise.

Agrium Inc. posted a second-quarter profit of US$229 million that was up 60% from a year earlier.

ING Canada said its second-quarter profit dipped to $194.3 million from a year-earlier $206 million as higher weather-related payouts and other costs offset strong investment results.

There are no major economic announcements from Statistics Canada.

The Canadian dollar opened at US95.01¢, up 0.09 of a cent.

Light sweet crude for September delivery dropped 37¢ to US$72.05 a barrel in electronic trading ahead of today’s report on U.S. weekly energy inventories.

Overnight, the Reserve Bank of Australia upped its key rate by a quarter of a percentage point, to 6.5%, and importantly said credit-market developments “to date don’t appear to have changed significantly the broader global outlook.”

In Europe, markets climbed modestly ahead of the open of the U.S. markets. London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.7%, Germany’s DAX index rose 0.62%, while France’s CAC-40 rose 0.92%.

In Asia, the Nikkei 225 index added 107.51 points, or 0.64%, on the Tokyo Stock Exchange to 17,029.28 points.

Hong Kong shares gained 2.9%, lifted by bargain hunting and Wall Street’s overnight advance. The blue-chip Hang Seng Index rose 628.68 points, or 2.87%, to 22,536.67.

The Toronto stock market endured a volatile session Tuesday, but closed only moderately changed as investors reacted to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s decision to hold the line on rates.

The Fed announced that it would leave the key overnight rate at 5.25%, while noting that inflation remained its primary policy worry.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 4.79, or 0.04%, to finish at 13,560.45, with a strong day in financials mitigating most of the losses in the resource sectors.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture Composite index tumbled 78.07 points, 2.53%, to 3,003.47.

In New York, markets finished higher as investors flocked back into the market after an initial sell off following the Fed announcement.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 35.52 points, or 0.26%, to 13,504.30, the Nasdaq composite index moved up 14.27, or 0.56%, to 2,561.60, and the S&P 500 lifted 9.04, or 0.62%, to 1,476.71.