North American stock futures rallied Wednesday after stocks tumbled in the previous session, lifted by strong results at Amazon.com and an improved earnings outlook at Boeing.

Online retailer Amazon.com reported a more than tripling of second-quarter earnings on 35% revenue growth. The profit view prompted upgrades from a number of brokers.

Boeing swung to a US$1.05 billion profit, reversing a year-earlier loss caused by troubles with the federal government, as the firm boosted its full-year forecast on strength at its core businesses and productivity efforts.

There are no major economic releases from Statistics Canada today.

The Canadian dollar pulled back slightly from its new 30-year high. The loonie opened at US96.27¢, down 0.09 of a cent.

On the U.S. economic front, a report on June existing-home sales is due as well as the Federal Reserve’s “beige book” survey on regional economies.

In earnings news, Apple is due to report results after the market’s close.

Crude-oil prices continued to drift lower, down 13¢ to US$73.56 a barrel ahead of weekly energy statistics.

Overseas, the Nikkei 225 dropped 0.8% in Tokyo. The FTSE 100 turned positive in London trading.

Toronto stocks plummeted Tuesday dragged down by free-falling commodity prices and by disappointing earnings results.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 400.17 points, or 2.8%, at 14,068.16.

The index hit a record peak of 14,646.82 last week, but has retreated 3.8% in the last three sessions.

Today’s slide was the benchmark index’s biggest one-day point drop since the end of the tech bubble in 2001.

All 10 of TSX main sectors declined, led by energy and materials.


The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index fell 69.68 points, or 2.1%, to 3,253.08.

In New York, U.S. stocks also tumbled on disappointing earnings results and worries over the health of the U.S. housing market with the three major indexes posting their worst single day performance since March 13.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 226.47 points, or 1.62%, at 13,716.95. The S&P 500 was down 30.53 points, or 1.98%, at 1,511.04.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index dropped 50.72 points, or 1.89%, at 2,639.86.