North American stocks may get a boost Friday from a better-than-expected report on the U.S. trade deficit.

The U.S. trade gap widened to US$56.96 billion, the Commerce Department reported today, from an upwardly revised US$53.56 billion in March. Import prices fell 1.3% in May, marking the first drop since December.

However, economists had expected the deficit to balloon to $58 billion, and for import prices to decline a more modest 0.4%.

Here at home, Statistics Canada said the country’s merchandise trade surplus with the world widened to $5.1 billion in April from $4.8 billion in March. The agency says companies exported $36.4 billion worth of merchandise, up 0.3%.

Meanwhile, StatsCan said employment rose in May, but more people went looking for jobs so the unemployment rate was unchanged from April. Employment rose by 35,000 last month and the unemployment rate stayed at 6.8%.

Investors will be taking a close look at Nortel Networks this morning. After only three months on the job, Gary Daichendt has resigned as president and chief operating officer of Nortel. Nortel also announced that chief technology officer Gary Kunis will also be leaving the Canadian-based telecom and Internet network company.

In other corporate news, Citigroup agreed to settle Enron-related class-action litigation for US$2 billion.

On Thursday, Toronto stocks ended higher, buoyed by a surging energy sector and a rally in telecommunications. South of the border, markets also advanced. Investors were calmed by comments from U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan that the American economy is relatively strong.

The S&P/TSX composite index finished the day up 55.56, or 0.57%, to close at 9,763.44. Volume was strong at 212 million shares.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index closed up 5.43, or 0.33%, at 1.659. 25.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 26.16, or 0.2%, to 10,503.02, after spending the early part of the day’s session in the red.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index gained 16.73, or 0.8%, to close 2,076.91. The S&P 500 lifted 6.26, or 0.52%, to finish at 1,200.93.

After markets closed, Intel Corp. boosted its second-quarter revenue forecast on better-than-expected demand for the chips that power notebook computers.