U.S. stock futures pointed to a higher open Thursday helped by Wal-Mart’s raised profit outlook.

Wal-Mart, the world’s biggest retailer, raised its third-quarter profit outlook, helped by improved margins and cost control.

In today’s economic news, Canada’s merchandise trade surplus with the world widened in August in the wake of a decline in exports and an even sharper decrease in imports.

With imports falling at twice the pace of exports, the nation’s trade balance with the world expanded to $4.1 billion, Statistics Canada reported today. At the same time, Canada’s trade surplus with the United States widened to $6.7 billion.

The Canadian dollar opened at US102.33 ¢, up 0.31 of a cent.

South of the border the U.S. trade gap narrowed more than expected in August to US$57.6 billion, as the weak U.S. dollar and stronger growth overseas helped push exports to a record, a U.S. Commerce Department reported today.

Meanwhile, the number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless aid fell a larger-than-expected 12,000 last week, the U.S. Labor Department said today. Initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits fell to 308,000 in the week ended October 6 from an upwardly revised 320,000 the prior week.

In today’s earnings news, PepsiCo’s third-quarter net income climbed 16% as foreign sales jumped and the company reaped the benefits of a weaker dollar world-wide and a tax benefit.

Sony Ericsson, the mobile-phone joint venture between Sony and Ericsson, posted a 10% drop in profit as it sold more low- and mid-tier handsets, eroding margins.

Late Wednesday, Corel Corp. slid to a loss of US$6.8 million in its fiscal third quarter as the software company took a one-time non-cash tax charge and put a time delay on its optimistic outlook for high-definition BluRay and HD DVD technology.

Crude-oil futures rose 83¢ to US$82.13 a barrel. Gold prices gained US$6.50 an ounce to trade at US$752.50.

European shares posted solid gains, with the German DAX 30 index and the French CAC 40 index both rising 0.6%.

Asian shares broke records in Hong Kong and South Korea, while Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average rose 1.64%.

Toronto stocks moved higher for a fourth straight day on Wednesday as rising commodity prices lifted the energy and materials sectors.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 14 points, or 0.1%, at 14,276.19.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index climbed 27.04 points, or 0.94%, to 2,899.24.

In New York, blue-chip stocks fell after Boeing said it would delay deliveries of its widely anticipated Dreamliner jet and early corporate results prompted concern about the outlook for profits.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 85.84 points, or 0.61%, to end at 14,078.69. The S&P 500 was down 2.68 points, or 0.17%t, at 1,562.47. But the Nasdaq composite index was up 7.70 points, or 0.27%, to close at 2,811.61.