Stocks are expected to open higher Friday, rebounding from a rough week prompted by less-than-impressive earnings reports, surging oil prices and some weak economic data. Good results from General Electric have futures pointing higher.

General Electric’s net income rose 3.4%, as nine of its core businesses saw double-digit growth in earnings. Revenue at the industrial and financial conglomerate climbed 11%. The result was slightly above the company’s May forecast,

In economic news, Canadian employment edged up by an estimated 25,000 in June, Statistics Canada reported today. That’s the third consecutive monthly increase. According to StatsCan, the June increase brings job gains since August 2003 to 316,000, or 2.%.

The unemployment rate rose slightly in June, up 0.1 percentage points to 7.3%, the result of an increase in the number of people in search of work.

South of the border, a report on wholesale trade for May will be released at 10:00 ET. Economists have forecast a gain of 0.5%, compared with April’s fall of 0.1%.

Asian markets closed higher.

Tokyo’s Nikkei rose 101.3 points to 11,423.53 points, shaking off a five-day losing streak.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng rose 82.51 points to 12,202.26.

On Thursday, the tech sector dragged most North American markets down after Yahoo Inc. and software-maker Siebel Systems Inc. announced disappointing outlooks, inspiring a tech sell-off.

Toronto’s S&P/TSX fell 61.56 points to 8420.38.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average lost 69.91 points dropping to 10170.38. The S&P 500 fell 9.27 points to 1109.06. The technology-centered Nasdaq composite index slid 30.76 points, or 1.56%, closing at 1,935.32.

The contrarian market of the day was the TSX Venture Exchange, which added 6.96 points to 1,574.79.