U.S. stock futures turned lower Thursday after weak earnings from Bank of America and Pfizer overshadowed strong results by Nokia.

Bank of America said its third-quarter profit fell 32%, hurt by a decline in global corporate and investment-banking revenue.

Pfizer’s quarterly net income dropped 77%, due to pretax charges of US$2.8 billion related to its exit of Exubera, Pfizer’s inhaled-insulin product.

Nokia posted an 85% jump in third-quarter profit, as the number of phones shipped in the quarter improved 26% to 111.7 million units.

Here at home, Statistics Canada reported that Canadians disposed of a record $7.4 billion worth of foreign securities in August, liquidating a sizable share of their holdings of foreign money market instruments. Meanwhile, non-residents disposed of $3.8 billion worth of Canadian securities in August.

The Canadian dollar opened at US102.59¢ this morning, up 0.09 of a cent.

In other earnings news, Eli Lilly’s quarterly net income rose 6%, as cost cuts and rising sales of newer products offset higher marketing and administrative expenses.

EBay said late Wednesday that it swung to a third-quarter loss due to a large write-off of its investment in telephony carrier Skype.

E-Trade Financial swung to an unexpected US$58 million loss due to write-offs of mortgages and related home-equity loans.

SAP, the world’s largest maker of business software, posted a 10% increase in third-quarter profit as license sales climbed.

Google is forecast to report earnings after the close of US$3.78 a share.

Crude-oil prices rose 25 cents to US$87.65 a barrel after briefly spiking as high as US$89 on Wednesday.

European markets also lost ground, with the U.K. FTSE 100 index down 1.1% and the German DAX 30 index losing 0.8%.

In Asian trading, Hong Kong stocks rallied briefly to above the 30,000 mark and Asian bourses ended generally higher.

The Toronto stock market finished higher on Wednesday as strength in energy issues offset weak materials shares.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 66.47 points, or 0.47%, at 14,219.50 after ending lower in the two previous sessions.

Overall, eight of the 10 TSX main groups were up, led by the energy sector which gained 1.8% after the price of oil rose to a record $89 a barrel.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index slipped 4.95 points, or 0.16%, to 3,009.89.

In New York, the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index was up 28.76 points, or 1.04%, at 2,792.67.

But, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 20.40 points, or 0.15%, to end at 13,892.54, while the S&P was up 2.71 points, or 0.18%, at 1,541.24.