Wall Street stock futures slipped Thursday as oil prices rose and U.S. retail-sales reports streamed in.

Oil futures rose 89¢ to US$110.24 a barrel after falling for the four previous sessions.

Retail behemoth Wal-Mart kicked off the sales report run by reporting that its U.S. same-store sales, excluding fuel, rose 3% in August. Namesake stores posted a 2.8% increase while warehouse chain Sam’s Club reported 4.2% growth excluding fuel.

In economic news, U.S. productivity jumped 4.3% in the second quarter, higher than initially estimated, while labour costs fell, reflecting a mix of employment declines and export-generated growth.

Today’s economic calendar also features U.S. weekly jobless claims, the Institute of Supply Management’s non-manufacturing index for August, and weekly U.S. energy inventories data.

Here at home, there are no major economic releases from Statistics Canada today.

The Canadian dollar opened at US94.09¢, off 0.16 cent.

In today’s earnings news, Bombardier Inc. reported second-quarter net income of US$246 million, up from a year-earlier loss of US$71 million, as revenue increased 22% to US$4.93 billion.

Life sciences company MDS Inc. reduced its full-year revenue and profit outlook while reporting a quarterly net loss of $10 million. Net revenue declined three% from a year earlier to $298 million.

U.S. luxury builder Toll Brothers swung to a fiscal third-quarter loss of US$29 million on 34% lower revenue amid.

Overseas, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England left interest rates steady.

The FTSE 100 index was up 30.9 points or 0.6% cent at 5,530.3 early in the afternoon in London, while the German DAX pulled back 0.9% and the French CAC 40 declined 0.5%.

In Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index shed 1% to 12,557.66, its weakest close since March 24.

The Hong Kong Hang Seng was off 1% to 20,389.48, its lowest level in more than a year.

Toronto stocks slumped for a second day in a row on Wednesday, as falling commodities prices dragged down resource shares.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 161.82 points, or 1.22%, at 13,137.72. The carnage spilled over to small-cap stocks for a second day. The junior S&P/TSX composite index fell 58.82 points, or 2.84%, to 1,874.90.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 15.96 points, or 0.14% at 11,532.88.

The S&P 500 slipped 2.59 points, or 0.20%, to 1,274.94, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index shed 15.51 points, or 0.66%, to 2,333.73.