U.S. stocks were set for a subdued start Friday, ahead of a report on U.S. consumer confidence.

Later this morning, the University of Michigan releases a new reading on U.S. consumer sentiment. Economists expect a reading of 69.5.

Here at home, the Canadian dollar opened at US89.45¢, down 1.2¢ from Thursday’s close.

In commodities news, light, sweet crude for July delivery fell US$1.02 to US$71.66 a barrel by noon in European electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei stock average rose 1.6%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.5%

In Europe, the UK FTSE 100 fell 0.3%, Germany’s DAX index declined 0.5%, and France’s CAC-40 fell 0.3%.

Strength in commodities pulled the resource-heavy Toronto Stock Exchange higher by more than 100 points on Thursday.

The S&P/TSX composite index rose 116.13 points, or 1.1%, to close at 10,714.11.

Junior stocks also advanced on Thursday, sending the S&P/TSX Venture composite index up 5.93 points, or 0.5%, to 1,148.32.

The Canadian dollar gained nearly half a cent on Thursday, to close at US90.65¢.

In New York, U.S. stock markets also finished with gains as investors digested newly released economic data. The Commerce Department announced that retail sales increased by 0.5% last month, in line with economist expectations, and the Labour Department said that the number of newly laid-off Americans requesting unemployment insurance fell for the third time in the past four weeks to 601,000 last week.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 31.9 points, or 0.4%, to finish at 8,770.92.

The S&P 500 index rose 5.74 points, or 0.6%, to 944.89, its highest level since early November.

The Nasdaq composite index gained 9.29 points, or 0.5%, to 1,862.37.

IE