North American stocks are expected to rise at the open Thursday as traders respond to a stronger than expected U.S. weekly jobless claims report.

The number of Americans seeking new claims for jobless benefits fell by a larger-than-expected 20,000 last week to the lowest level in two months.

The U.S. Labor Department said today that initial jobless claims in the week ended June 18 fell to 314,000. Economists had forecast claims to have slipped by 3,000 to 330,000.

The U.S. National Association of Realtors is slated to report on existing home sales at 10:00. Economists expect a modest 0.4% decrease in the number of existing home sales to an annual rate of 7.15 million in May from 7.18 million in April

There are no major economic reports from Statistics Canada this morning.

In today’s earnings news, computer graphics chip maker ATI Technologies Inc. reported a loss of US $445,000 in its fiscal third quarter and lowered its sales forecast for the current quarter.

The company cut its fourth-quarter sales forecast to between $550 million and $580 million.

In other business news, Dow component General Electric Co. said it will reorganize its 11 businesses into six industry-focused groups and shuffled its top executives.

Toronto stocks stormed ahead Wednesday, finishing above the 10,000-point plateau for the first time in four-and-half years.

The S&P/TSX composite index gained an impressive 112.29 points, or 1.13%, to close at 10,051.49. The last time the senior exchange closed above 10,000 was October 2000.

Nine of the 10 TSX main sub-groups advanced today, with energy up 1.71%, the heavily weighted financials sector gaining 1.43%, and information technology ahead 1.28%.

In the day’s biggest news, TD Bank confirmed the sale of its TD Waterhouse USA brokerage division to Ameritrade Holding Corp., in exchange for a 32% ownership stake in the combined company. The new firm is to be known as TD Ameritrade.

As part of the deal, TD Bank Financial Group will acquire Ameritrade’s Canadian brokerage operations for $60 million US in cash. TD was up 84¢, or 1.56%, to close at $54.60 on the TSX.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index finished down 16.20, or 0.94%, to 1,712.79

In New York, equity markets were mixed, with the blue chip Dow Jones industrial average slipping 11.74, or 0.11%, to close at 10,587.93.

The tech heavy Nasdaq composite index gained 0.96, or 0.05%, to finish 1,213.88, and the broad based S&P 500 inched up 0.27, or 0.02%, to close at 1,213.88.