Wall Street stock-index futures rose Friday while Canadian investors digested news that a $1 billion writedown helped push Royal Bank of Canada into the red during the second quarter.

Royal Bank said it lost $50 million, or 7¢ per share during the quarter ended April 30, reversing profits of $928 million, or 70¢ a share, in the earlier period..

In today’s economic news, the current account deficit in the first quarter of 2009 expanded to $9.1 billion, led by a further decline of the goods surplus to $0.8 billion, as exports fell by more than imports, Statistics Canada said.

Cross-border portfolio investment flows on the capital and financial account rebounded following the turmoil of the fourth quarter of 2008, adding significantly to large net inflows of funds to Canada in the first quarter of 2009, StatsCan said.

The Canadian dollar opened at US90.78¢, up 1.08 cents from Thursday’s close.

South of the border, the U.S. economy contracted at a 5.7% annual rate, as less inventory liquidation and a smaller drop in exports led to an adjustment up from the originally estimated 6.1% GDP drop.

The revision was slightly smaller than economists expected.

In other earnings news, Dell said late Thursday that earnings in the most recent quarter sank 63% as sales suffered.

In commodities news, light, sweet crude rose 99¢ to US$65.99 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average rose 0.8%. In afternoon trading, the UK’s FTSE 100 gained 1.6%, Germany’s DAX index rose 1.4%, and France’s CAC-40 moved up 1.5%.

On Thursday, the benchmark index of the Toronto Stock Exchange got a big boost from gains in energy and financial shares.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 250.21 points, or 2.5%, at 10,392.37.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index rose 12.17 points, or 1.1%, to finish at 1,105.16.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average closed up 103.78 points, or 1.3% at 8,403.80. The broader S&P 500 closed up 13.77 points, or 1.5%. at 906.83. The Nasdaq composite index gained 20.71 points, or 1.2%, to end at 1,751.79.

IE