North American markets are expected to open flat Thursday, as investors focus on mixed economic reports and the ongoing flow offourth-quarter earnings.

In today’s economic news, the U.S. Labor Department said initial jobless claims rose by 7,000 to 325,000 in the week ended Jan. 22. Wall Street expected a gain of 16,000 claims.

U.S. durable-goods orders grew at a much slower rate than expected last month, restrained by a sharp plunge in orders for aircraft.

The U.S. Commerce Department said durable-goods orders increased a seasonally adjusted 0.6% to US$200.35 billion last month after climbing 1.8% in November. For the year, durable goods orders climbed 10.9% on an unadjusted basis after rising 3.0% in 2003 and dropping 1.9% in 2002.

December orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft, a barometer of business spending, rose 1.8%, after a 0.9% increase in November.

Here at home, Statistic Canada said that “Manufacturers have begun to retrench following the rapid run-up in the value of the Canadian dollar and substantial increases in the price of crude oil and other raw material inputs in 2004, dampening the outlook for the first quarter of 2005.” In its business conditions survey for January, StatsCan said “Manufacturers are now anticipating lower production and employment levels in the coming months, resulting from dissatisfaction with the current levels of orders and inventories.”

In earnings news, Nokia reported a smaller-than-expected fall in net profit for the fourth quarter and strong estimates for the first quarter of 2005. Sales at the world’s largest mobile-phone maker rose 3.4%.

Among TSX-listed companies, Petro-Canada said its fourth-quarter profit more than doubled to $441 million.

Canadian Pacific Railway said its fourth-quarter profit dropped to $129 million, from $174 million a year earlier, but full-year earnings rose to $413 million.

On Wednesday,.the benchmark S&P/TSX composite index rose 37.26 points, or 0.41%, to 9,162.36. Volume was 270 million shares.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index slipped 4.46 points to 1,799.61.

In New York, U.S. stocks ended higher for the second session in a row, lifted by better-than-expected earnings from companies such as Texas Instruments Inc. and a retreat in crude oil prices.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 37.03 points, or 0.35%, to close at 10,498.59. The S&P 500 Index was up 5.66 points, or 0.48%, to end at 1,174.07. The tech-havey Nasdaq composite index was up 26.14 points, or 1.29%, to finish at 2,046.09.