Wall Street stock futures pointed to modest gains for the start of May trading after April’s big gains.

On today’s U.S. economic data calendar, investors will respond to the Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing index for April, and data on factory orders, consumer sentiment and vehicle sales figures.

There are no major economic releases from Statistics Canada today.

The Canadian dollar opened at US84.45¢, up 0.63 of a cent from Thursday’s close.

In earnings news, credit card company MasterCard said its first quarter profit fell 18% as investment income tumbled 85% and U.S. card spending slid.

MetLife reported a first-quarter loss of US$574 million, or 71¢ a share, after the closing bell Thursday.

Fairfax Financial posted a first quarter loss of US$60.4 million, or US$3.55 a diluted share.

Hartford Financial Services reported a first-quarter net loss of US$1.21 billion, or US$3.77 a share.

In M&A news, U.S. bank Citigroup Inc. sold its Japanese retail brokerage Nikko Cordial to Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group.

In commodities news, light, sweet crude fell 26¢ to US$50.86 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Overseas, the Nikkei 225 rallied 1.7% in Tokyo.

The FTSE 100 fell 0.1% in London, while most other European bourses were closed for the May Day holiday.

On Thursday, the Toronto Stock Exchange kicked off the session with strong gains, but a drop in commodity stocks pulled the benchmark index 1% lower by day’s end.

The S&P/TSX composite index fell 91.48 points to close at 9,324.83.

The index rose 6.9% in April, adding to its 7.4% rise in March.

The S&P/TSX Venture composite index gave up 4.99 points, or 0.5%, to finish at 1,008.98.

Stocks south of the border finished the day with mixed results, and left the main stock market indexes up sharply for the month of April.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 17.61 points, or 0.2%, to end at 8,168.12. For the month of April, the blue-chip index gained 7.3%.

The S&P 500 index slipped just 0.83 of a point, or 0.1%, to finish at 872.81. The index added a substantial 9.4% for April.

The Nasdaq composite index rose 5.36 points, or 0.3%, to finish at 1,717.30, leaving the technology-laden index with a monthly gain of 12.3%.

IE