U.S. stock futures moved higher Friday in the wake of a December employment report that wasn’t as grim as some investors economists had expected.

Nonfarm payrolls tumbled 524,000 in December, the U.S. Labour Department said. November was revised to show an even steeper decline of 584,000, the most since 1974.

Wall Street economists had forecast a drop of 525,000 jobs fore December..

The unemployment rate rose 0.4 percentage point to 7.2% in December, the highest since January 1993.

Here at home, Statistics Canada reported Canada’s economy lost 34,4000 jobs last month as the unemployment rate jumped to 6.6% from 6.3% in November.

Meanwhile, the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts was 177,300 units in December, down marginally from 178,000 units in November, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

The Canadian dollar opened at US84.15¢, down 0.7 of a cent from Thursday’s close.

In commodities news, the price of oil fell 72¢ to US$40.98 a barrel in pre-market electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average fell 0.45%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index lost 38.47 points, or 0.3%, to 14,377.44.

In afternoon trading, the UK’s FTSE 100 declined 0.54%, Germany’s DAX index fell 0.14%, and France’s CAC-40 fell 0.2%.

Canadian stocks bounced back into positive territory on Thursday, led by strength in the materials group as gold futures rallied.

The S&P/TSX composite index moved higher by 100.26 points, or 1.1%, to close at 9,221.58.

The materials group led the way with gains of 2.7%.

The S&P/TSX Venture composite advanced 11.15 points, or 1.26%, to end at 899.47.

Major American indexes saw mixed results amid the disappointing news from the retail sector.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 27.24 points, or 0.3%, to 8,742.46.

The S&P 500 index posted gains of 3.08 points, or 0.3%, to 909.73, and the Nasdaq composite index rose by 17.95 points to end at 1,617.01.

Shares of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. tumbled US$4.16, or 7.5%, on the New York Stock Exchange, after it reported December same-store sales that fell short of analyst expectations. Wal-Mart shares closed at US$51.38.

IE