North American stocks may open weaker Thursday, a day after the Dow Jones industrial average closed at a five-year high.

In today’s business news, an investor group led by affiliates of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Five Mile Capital Partners LLC, and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners said it has acquired a majority interest in real-estate finance firm GMAC Commercial Holding Corp. from General Motors Acceptance Corp.

GMAC Commercial, which provides real-estate finance, investments and services, announced that it has changed its name to Capmark Financial Group Inc.

In earnings news, Adobe Systems Inc., which makes software such as Acrobat for creating digital documents, said its first-quarter profit fell 31%, due largely to expenses from its acquisition of Macromedia.

Dell said late Wednesday it would acquire computer maker Alienware for an undisclosed sum in a move further into the high-end market for game-related computing gear.

Crude-oil futures bounced off five-week lows, with the front-month light sweet crude contract up 53¢ to US$62.30 a barrel in electronic trading.

On the U.S. economic front, existing home sales in February are expected to ease to 6.52 million from 6.56 million when reported at 10 ET, while U.S. weekly jobless claims declined by 11,000 to 302,000 from a revised 313,000 — the third-straight week claims have been above the psychological 300,000 barrier.

The Canadian dollar opened at US85.72, down 0.04 of a cent.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index edged lower.

Markets were mostly up in Europe, with the German DAX 30 index adding 0.2% and the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 index gaining 0.2%.

Toronto stocks moved ahead Wednesday, enjoying an uptick in the energy sector.

The S&P/TSX composite index finished up 23.04 points, or 0.19%, to 11,970.65.

Shares of Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. fell $19.12, or 12.54%, to $133.35 after the insurance holding company said U.S. regulators have subpoenaed chief executive officer Prem Watsa and its auditors regarding comments made on a conference call with investors in February.

The S&P/TSX Venture composite index moved up 15.40, or 0.58%, to 2,682.72.

In New York, markets ended higher on encouraging corporate news. The gains were enough to push the Dow Jones industrial average to a new five-year high.

The Dow rose 81.96 points to 11,317.43, the index’s highest close since May 2001. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 9.12 points to 2,303.35 and the S&P 500 Index gained 7.81 points to 1,305.04.

Shares in GM were 1¢ higher to US$22.01 after the automaker and the auto parts supplier it once owned, Delphi Corp., announced deals with the United Auto Workers. GM is offering buyouts to up to 100,000 hourly GM workers and 13,000 hourly Delphi employees represented by the United Auto Workers.