Wall Street stock futures pointed higher Friday despite the release of weaker-than-expected Canadian and U.S. jobs reports.

The U.S. economy lost 598,000 jobs in January, as the jobless rate rose to 7.6% from 7.2% in December.

Wall Street economists had expected about half a million in jobs to be cut last month.

Here at home, the Canadian economy lost 129,000 jobs in January, almost all of them full-time positions, pushing the unemployment rate up 0.6 percentage points to 7.2%.

January’s job losses far exceeded the drop of 40,000 that Bay Street economists had forecast.

The Canadian dollar opened at US80.43¢, down 0.80 of a cent from Thursday’s close.

In earnings news, Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, swung to a loss of 164.7 billion yen (US$2.23 billion) for the fiscal third quarter, down sharply from the 458.6 billion yen profit it had in the year-earlier period.

Hartford Financial Services Group said it intends to cut its quarterly dividend after booking a steep loss.

JDS Uniphase reported a loss and said that revenue in its coming quarter would come in short of Wall Street forecasts.

In commodities news, light sweet crude fell US$1.05 to US$40.12 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Overseas markets were generally stronger. The Nikkei 225 rose 1.6% in Tokyo and the Hang Seng rose 3.6% in Hong Kong.

European stocks also rose, the FTSE 100 rose 0.5% in London and the German DAX 30 rose 0.5% in Frankfurt.

On Thursday, continued strength in commodities helped to pull the benchmark index of the Toronto Stock Exchange higher on Thursday.

The S&P/TSX composite index rose 167.89 points, or 1.9%, to close at 8,860.98.

Shares of Research In Motion finished the day at $69.94, up 1.2%, after a panel of the Ontario Securities Commission approved a settlement agreement with the company’s top executives concerning the company’s stock options.

The S&P/TSX Venture composite index edged higher by 8.17 points, or 0.9%, to close at 898.22.

In New York, U.S. stock markets experienced similar strength on Thursday, as investors absorbed some better-than-expected news from the retail sector.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 106.41 points, or 1.34%, to 8,063.07.

The S&P 500 index gained 13.62, or 1.64%, to 845.85.

The Nasdaq composite advanced 31.19, or 2.06%, to 1546.24.

IE