Source: The Canadian Press

The Toronto stock market appeared poised to start the day higher on the back of another round of solid earnings from south of the border.

Microsoft Corp., American Express Co. and Ford Motor Co. all reported earnings that topped forecasts. More importantly, their results showed that businesses and consumers are increasing their spending as the economy recovers.

American Express said customers are spending close to pre-recession levels, a sign that shoppers are gaining some confidence in their personal finances. Ford”s sales jumped 28% in first half of the year, nearly double the pace of the industry.

Their earnings added to a string of results over the past couple of days that helped push markets higher, with both the TSX and Dow up more than 200 points Thursday.

The Canadian dollar was at 96.30 cents US, up 0.09 of a cent.

Statistics Canada said that Canada”s inflation dropped to the lowest level in eight months in June, as lower gasoline, clothing and footwear prices combined to push the annual rate down to 1%. It was the second month in a row that the agency reported its consumer price index had dropped by four-tenths of a point — a significant decline.


Verizon Communications Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. were two of the few disappointing results recently, but not bad enough to keep futures from climbing.

In Canadian earnings, Celestica Inc. (TSX:CLS) slipped to a small $6.1 million net loss in the second quarter, reversing a year-earlier profit. Revenue was $1.59 billion.

Ahead of the opening bell, Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 33, or 0.3%, to 10,300. Standard & Poor”s 500 index futures rose 4.80, or 0.4%, to 1,092.50, while Nasdaq 100 index futures rose 10.00, or 0.5%, to 1,862.75.

Overseas, Britain”s FTSE 100 fell 0.2%, Germany”s DAX index rose 0.6%, and France”s CAC-40 lifted 3.2%.