With the Republican National Convention keeping traders away from Manhattan in droves and Friday’s big report on August employment in the wings, stocks are likely to idle Wednesday morning.

Later this morning, the Institute for Supply Management is due to release its August report on U.S. manufacturing at 10:00 ET. Economists are looking for more modest increases in manufacturing for August, with forecasts centering on a falloff to 60.0 from 62.0 in July.

Also, automakers release their sales figures for August.

There are no economic releases from Statistics Canada this morning.

European bourses were higher in midday trading. At noon, the Financial Times-Stock Exchange 100-share index was up 32.1 points at 4,491.40.

France’s CAC 40 was up 20.28 points to 3,614.56 Tuesday and Germany’s DAX was up 25.59 points at 3,810.80.

Overnight in Asia, the Japanese Nikkei ended up 45.56 points, or 0.41%, at 11,127.35..

Canadian markets held on to early-day gains, and then some, on Tuesday, while U.S. markets rallied late in the day to close in positive territory as investors on both sides of the border shrugged off some disappointing economic news.

At close, the S&P/TSX composite index was up by 67.99 points, or 0.82%, to 8,377.03, while the junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index was up slightly, 0.87 of a point, at 1524.79.

Energy stocks jumped 1.32% even as the price of crude dipped; Shell Canada (up 84¢ or 1.31% to $64.99), Talisman Energy (up 63¢ or 2.16% to $29.85) and Petro-Canada (up 78¢ or 1.28% to $61.50) among bigger gainers in that sector.

Financials gained 0.54%, but were held back by Bank of Nova Scotia (down 64¢ or 1.75% to $35.92), despite the fact the bank reported that third-quarter earnings were up 17%.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average surged late in the afternoon to close ahead by 51.4 points, or 0.51%, at 10,173.92, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index gained 1.61 points to 1,838.1, and the S&P 500 was up 5.09 points, or 0.46%, to 1,104.24.

The Canadian dollar gained 0.34 of a cent to US76.16¢ late in the day as the U.S. dollar fell back on weaker-than-expected U.S. consumer confidence figures and Midwest purchasing managers report for August.