Stocks looked to open mixed Thursday as the price of crude oil rose and Resarch in Motion and Cognos Inc. delivered mixed earnings reports.

Trading is expected to be light as markets wind down for the holidays.

Crude oil futures were rising in pre-market action, gaining 43¢ to US$58.99 a barrel, which may dampen investor enthusiasm in the equity market.

Oil prices were affected by Royal Dutch Shell’s declaration of “force majeure” — which protects a company from lawsuits for contracts unfulfilled — on 180,000 barrels of oil after a Tuesday attack on a Nigerian pipeline.

In today’s economic news, the U.S. Commerce Department said personal income and spending each rose 0.3%, a bit less than expected. Both indicators were expected to increase 0.4% after a revised 0.5% increase in income and a 0.2% increase in spending in October.

Meanwhile, the number of U.S. workers filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell by 13,000 to a seasonally adjusted level of 318,000 in the week ended Dec. 17, the U.S. Labor Department said Thursday. The four-week moving average of initial jobless claims fell by 4,750 to 329,250.

The are no major economic releases from Statistics Canada today.

The Canadian dollar opened at US85.73¢, up 0.1 of a cent.


After markets closed Wednesday, Research In Motion reported a 33% rise in third-quarter profit a 53% jump in revenue, but the firm trimmed its subscriber forecast for its popular BlackBerry wireless e-mail devise.

RIM shares fell 99¢, or 1.35%, to close at $72.50.


Cognos Inc. said its third-quarter profit fell to US$28.3 million, down 18% from a year ago, on disappointing sales of its software products.

Overnight, Asian-Pacific markets were mostly lower. The Japanese Nikkei fell 0.1% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.3%.

Major European indexes were flat in midday trading.

Toronto stocks ended higher Wednesday, despite a drop in energy prices, as the financial sector put in a strong performance.

The S&P/TSX composite index gained 66.62, or 0.60%, to finish at 11,247.25.

The financials group gained 1.02% on the day.

The S&P/TSX Venture composite index finished up 14.32, or 0.67%, to 2,142.52.

In New York, major acquisitions news from Google Inc., Seagate Technologies and IBM Corp. gave a boost to the market, while lower-than-expected gross domestic product growth eased inflation fears.

Final third-quarter GDP was lower than anticipated, with the economy growing at an annualized rate of 4.1% instead of the expected 4.3%.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 28.18, or 0.26%, to 10,833.73.

Broader stock indicators also moved higher. The S&P 500 climbed 3.17, or 0.25%, to 1,262.79, while the Nasdaq composite index added 9.24, or 0.42%, to 2,231.66.