U.S. stock futures moved higher Wednesday despite an overnight rise in the price of crude oil.

Crude was back on the upswing today ahead of weekly energy inventories data, due at 10:30 ET. Light, sweet crude for July delivery was recently up US$1.91 at US$133.22 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In today’s economic news, Canadian industries significantly reduced their use of production capacity in the first quarter, pushing the rate to its lowest level in 15 years, Statistics Canada reported. Most of the sectors that make up the industrial group contributed to the decline. Only the oil and gas extraction sector posted an increase in capacity utilization.

In the first quarter, industries operated at 79.8% of their capacity compared with 81.8% in the fourth quarter of 2007. The current rate is 7.3 points below the peak of 87.1% reached in the fourth quarter of 2000.

Separately, StatsCan said new housing prices increased at their slowest pace in more than two and a half years in April, despite strong markets in Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia.

Nationally, contractors’ selling prices rose 5.2% between April 2007 and April 2008, a slower pace than the year-over-year increase of 6.1% in March.

South of the border, the U.S. Federal Reserve scheduled to release its “beige book” on regional economic activity at 14:00 ET.

In earnings news, Royal Bank of Scotland Group said its group and divisional performance trends continue to track the guidance given in April. RBS said results have been held back by the effects of the continuing deterioration in credit markets.

Here at home, Agrium Inc. raised its profit expectations amid blossoming demand for crop inputs. Agrium now projects second-quarter earnings of US$2.80 to US$3 per share, up from previous EPS guidance of US$1.92 to JS$2.22.

Sporting-goods retailer Forzani Group Ltd. posted a first-quarter loss of $2.9 million as sales at stores open a year or more declined 2.1%.

Overseas, European markets were flat, with the FTSE 100 index off 8.2 points to 5,819.1 early in the afternoon in London, and slight index gains in Frankfurt and Paris.

Japanese shares were boosted by a weakening yen and an upward GDP revision. The Nikkei 225 index rose 162.31 points, or 1.2%, to 14,183.48

The Shanghai composite index slipping 1.6% following a drop of nearly eight per cent the day before.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index slipped 0.2%t.

The Toronto Stock Exchange’s main index tumbled Tuesday after the Bank of Canada unexpectedly left interest rates unchanged and gold and oil prices eased.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 224.56 points, or 1.5%, at 14,736.20. It had earlier fallen by as many as 300 points.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index fell 18.37 points, or 0.69%, to 2,648.94.

In New York, the main indices finished mixed.

The Dow Jones industrial average finished up 9.44 points, or 0.08%, at 12,289.76.

But the Standard & Poor’s 500 was down 3.32 points, or 0.24%, at 1,358.44. The Nasdaq composite index was down 10.52 points, or 0.43%, at 2,448.94.