North American markets are likely to rise at the open Friday on news that the U.S. economy grew faster at the end of 2004 than earlier thought.

The U.S. Commerce Department said gross domestic product increased in the fourth quarter at a 3.8% annual pace, higher than the 3.1% rate initially estimated.

The revised GDP figure was in line with what economists had expected.

Here at home, Statistics Canada said Canada’s current account surplus with the rest of the world declined $2.1 billion in the fourth quarter to $6.3 billion on a seasonally adjusted basis.

Meanwhile, Canadian corporations earned record high operating profits of $204.5 billion in 2004, up 18.8% over 2003 levels, the government agency reported.

StatsCan said the 2004 profit growth was the strongest since 2000, largely due to significant gains in the first two quarters of the year. On a quarterly basis, fourth quarter profits increased 2.4% to 52.9 billion following little change in the third quarter.

In today’s earnings news, Royal Bank says its first-quarter earnings jumped 25% to $979 million. Earnings for the quarter ended Jan. 31 amounted to $1.50 a share diluted, up from $786 million or $1.18 per share a year earlier.

On Thursday, the heavily weighed financials group dragged the S&P/TSX composite index down 17.95 points, or 0.19%, to finish at 9,657.74.

Financial issued sagged 0.57% after the latest federal budget removed the cap on foreign assets held in tax-deferred retirement accounts, raising some concerns early in the day of an outflow of investment dollars.

Stronger bank profits failed to offset the retreat, with Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce down 33¢, or 0.47%, at $70.17.

CIBC reported higher first-quarter earnings of $1.94 per share. But after a one-time gain from share sales was stripped out, its profit was $1.45 a share.

Toronto Dominion Bank, which also posted a higher first-quarter profit, closed unchanged at $50.10.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index climbed 25.88 points, or 1.33%, to end at 1,977.28.

In New York,, stocks continued working to recoup big losses from earlier in the week.

After hovering around the flat line for most of the session, the Dow Jones industrial average closed at its best levels, up 75 points, or 0.7%, at 10,748.79.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index, meanwhile, rose 20.45 points, or 1%, at 2,051.70 and the S&P 500 added 9.40 points, or 0.8%, to 1,200.20.