North American stocks are looking to open higher on Thursday, boosted by merger activity and solid FedEx earnings, a day after the U.S. Federal Reserve decided to keep interest rates in check.

German pharmaceutical firm Merck KGaA announced that it is buying a majority stake in rival Serono S.A. for approximately US$13.3 billion. In addition, U.S. pharma Hospira, Inc. announced that it is acquiring Australian generic drug maker Mayne Pharma Ltd. for US$2 billion.

Meanwhile, FedEx Corp. reported strong earnings for the first quarter ended Aug. 31. It had revenue of US$8.54 billion, up 11% from US$7.71 billion the previous year while its operating income totalled US$784 million, up 34% from US$584 million a year ago

Oil prices also rebounded a little in early trading as traders took advantage of a drop in prices on Wednesday. Light sweet crude for November delivery rose US21¢ cents to US$60.95 a barrel.

The Canadian dollar opened at US89.06¢, up US0.46¢ after falling US0.08¢ on Wednesday.

In economic news, Statistics Canada announced that retail sales advanced 1.5% in July to a record high $33 billion, mainly on the strength of the automotive sector, more than offsetting declines in May and June.

Other data due for release on Thursday includes the U.S. Conference Board’s report on leading indicators for August. A 0.2% decline from July is expected.

On Wednesday, Toronto stocks were down despite a strong day in the technology sectors.

The S&P/TSX composite index fell 66.32, or 0.57%, to 11,635.39.

Five of the 10 TSX main sub-groups were down.

The S&P/TSX Venture Exchange index fell 39.05, or 1.54%, to 2,498.39.

In New York, markets rallied as the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 72.28 points at 11,613.19. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 30.52 points to 2,252.89 and the S&P 500 Index rose 6.87 points to 1,325.18.