North American markets look set to stage a rebound Friday morning, buoyed by Microsoft’s earnings and better-than-expected data on U.S. personal income and spending.

Earlier today, the U.S. Commerce Department said March personal income increased 0.5%, after rising a revised 0.4% in February. Personal consumption rose 0.6% last month, after rising a revised 0.7% in February. The results beat economists’ forecasts of a 0.4% rise in personal income and a 0.5% gain in consumer spending.

Markets got another shot of good news from Microsoft. The software giant said after the bell Thursday that profit nearly doubled in its fiscal third quarter, thanks to lower legal costs and stronger demand for software for server systems, but the company missed its revenue target for the period.

Later this morning the University of Michigan will release its final reading on the April consumer sentiment index. Economists look for the index to climb to a reading of 89.0 from the preliminary reading of 88.7 and the final reading for March of 92.6.

The National Association of Purchasing Management-Chicago is due to release its purchasing managers index for April at 10:00 ET. The focus of economists’ forecasts is for a decline to a reading of 63.0 from 69.2.

Here at home, Statistics Canada said economy rose by 0.3% in February, bolstered by consumer and investment demand, after increasing by 0.2% in January.


On Thursday, the Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index was down 48.45 points or 0.52% at 9275.07, while the TSX Venture Exchange fell 24.79 points or 1.45% to 1685.51.

The Dow Jones industrials lost 128.43 points or 1.26% at 10070.37. The Nasdaq fell 26.25 points or 1.36% to 1904.18, its lowest level in six months, and the S&P 500 index eased 13.16 points 1.14% to 1143.22.