North American socks are looking to open higher Friday as traders digest Ford Motor’s turnaround plan and U.S. consumer inflation data.

Ford said it will close two more plants – one of them in Essex, Ont. – cut 10,000 more salaried jobs and expand its buyout offer to all U.S. employees. Ford is also dumping its quarterly dividend.

The auto maker said it is looking to lower ongoing annual operating costs by about $5 billion. Ford doesn’t expect full-year profitability for its North American auto operations before 2009.

In economic news, U.S. consumer prices rose in line with expectations during August as energy costs eased up after the midsummer surge.

The consumer-price index rose 0.2% last month, the U.S. Labor Department reported today, following a 0.4% increase in July. Excluding food and energy costs, prices rose a seasonally adjusted 0.2% for the second month in a row.

Other data due for release Friday August industrial production figures and the University of Michigan’s preliminary September consumer sentiment index.

Here at home Statistics Canada reported that national net worth reached $4.7 trillion by the end of the second quarter, or $142,900 per person.

Meanwhile, the government agency said rebounding truck sales drove new motor vehicle sales up in July after three consecutive months of decline.

The Canadian dollar opened at US89.32¢, down 0.14 of a cent.

In earnings news, Patheon reported a third-quarter loss of US$257.2 million late Thursday, reversing a profit of $3.5 million in the same period a year ago.

In M&A news, Barrick Gold has extended its US$1.5 billion offer to buy NovaGold Resources Inc. to September 29 and says it will seek a hearing at the B.C. Securities Commission to cancel the junior gold miner’s shareholder rights plan.

IntercontinentalExchange Inc., an electronic marketplace for commodities, said Thursday it plans to buy the New York Board of Trade for about US$1 billion in cash and stock.

Overseas, Asian markets closed mixed. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index closed at 15,866.93 points Friday, down 75.46 points, or 0.47 per cent.

In Hong Kong, the blue-chip Hang Seng Index rose 54.2 points, or 0.32 per cent, to 17,237.65.

Toronto stocks dropped Wednesday, deepening a recent pullback, as the resource sectors were hit hard once again by falling commodity prices.

The S&P/TSX composite index fell 128.46, or 1.09%, to 11,648.74.

Seven of the 10 TSX main sub-groups were down, with the energy sector off 2.57%

The S&P/TSX Venture composite index lost 35.33 points, or 1.36%, to 2,570.22.

In New York, markets were mixed as investors concerned themselves again with a possibly slowing U.S. economy.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 15.93 points to 11,527.39, the S&P 500 dipped 1.79 point to 1,316.28 and the Nasdaq composite index gained 1.06 to 2,228.73.