North American markets are likely to falter Thursday after Amazon.com turned in disappointing quarterly results.

After the closing bell Wednesday, Amazon.com reported fourth quarter results that missed Wall Street forecasts despite a surge in net from a tax gain.

In today’s economic news, the productivity of U.S. workers cooled at the end of 2004. Non-farm business productivity grew at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 0.8% from October through December, after a more robust 1.8% increase in the third quarter.

U.S. initial jobless claims fell by 9,000 last week to 316,000, the gauge’s lowest level in nearly two months.

Reports on U.S. factory orders in December and the ISM report on U.S. service sector activity for January are due out later in the morning.

There are no major economic reports from Statistics Canada today.

In today’s earnings news, Gillette reported its profit rose 13% in the latest quarter on a 19% increase in sales.

North American markets closed in the black Wednesday, with gold and energy stocks leading Bay Street while an expected interest rate hike appeared to hold back U.S. markets.

At close, Toronto’s S&P/TSX composite index was up 33.81 points or 0.36% to 9,303.94.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite gained 12.21 or 0.68% to 1,817.30.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 44.85 points or 0.43% to 10,596.79. The Nasdaq composite index added 6.36 points or 0.31% to 2,075.06. The S&P 500 index was up 3.78 points or 0.32% to 1,193.19.

The Canadian dollar was down 0.11 of a cent at US80.80¢ in late trading.

In New York, anticipation over the Federal Reserve’s statement, and the expected 0.25 percentage point rise in short-term interest rates, overshadowed upbeat results from Google Inc. and Boeing Co. earlier in the session, effectively corking gains for stocks.