North American stocks look set to open higher Thursday, a day after triple digit losses on Wall Street and Bay Street.

Markets should get a boost form encouraging data on U.S. jobless claims and business inventories.

The U.S. Labor Department said today that initial jobless claims fell by a seasonally adjusted 10,000 to 330,000 in the week that ended April 9. Economists expected jobless claims to fall by 4,000.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Commerce Department said February business inventories rose 0.5% to a seasonally adjusted $1.288 trillion, after rising an unrevised 0.9% in January. The increase was nearly in line with Wall Street expectations for U.S. companies’ inventories to rise 0.6% in February.

Here at home, Statistics Canada released a study which showed that Canada’s economic growth in 2004 was increasingly driven by its resource base, especially energy exports and investment, as demand from China soared.

In earnings news, Pepsico’s net rose 13%, led by strong growth in its international operations, and the snack-food and soft-drink company raised its full-year forecast by a penny due to a favorable tax change.

Apple’s profit surged more than sixfold and revenue jumped 70% on strong results from its iPod and computer businesses.

On Wednesday, Canadian and U.S. markets posted triple-digit losses as falling oil prices stocks took the wind out of the TSX and a disappointing retail sales report caught U.S. investors off guard.

At close, the S&P/TSX composite index was down 136.90 points or 1.42% to 9,492.12, while the junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index fell 34.84 or 1.93% to 1,772.89.

On Wall Street, the Dow industrial average was off 104.04 points or 0.99% at 10,403.93. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index lost 31.03 or 1.55% to 1,974.37, while the S&P 500 index retreated 13.97 points or 1.18% to 1,173.79.

In Toronto, energy stocks fell 2.79% as the price of light sweet crude for May delivery fell $1.51 to US$50.35 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange as data from the U.S. Department of Energy showed that supply of crude oil grew last week by 3.6 million barrels to 320.7 million barrels.