The outlook for North American stocks is mixed Wednesday as investors await the latest batch of second-quarter updates.

Demand for U.S. durable goods increased in June after back-to-back declines, as defense aircraft orders surged and capital-equipment spending climbed.

The Commerce Department said today that orders for longer-lasting manufactured goods rose 0.7% to US$191.7 billion last month. Non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft — a barometer of business spending — climbed 1.2%, after dropping 1.9% in May.

The report on June durables was weaker than expected on Wall Street. Economists had forecast orders up 1.5%.

There are no major economic releases from Statistics Canada today.

In this morning’s earnings news, Time Warner said its profit fell 27% during the second quarter, mostly because the year-earlier period included several one-time gains. Revenue at the media conglomerate rose 9.7% to US$10.89 billion.

Asian stocks rallied overnight, with Tokyo prices rebounding from a four-day slide to close 1.6% higher following Tuesday’s strong gains on Wall Street.

The Nikkei jumped 172.83 points to close at 11,204.37.

Shares in Hong Kong rose only slightly. The Hang Seng Index climbed 18.95 points to finish at 12,320.27.

On Tuesday, troubles at Nortel Network weighed on Toronto stocks.

At close, the S&P/TSX composite index recovered from midday lows to finish down 20.18 points to 8,294.37, while the junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index was off 4.8 pointsto 1,467.59.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average surged 123.22 points, or 1.24%, to close at 10,085.14. The tech-laden Nasdaq composite index finished up 30.08 points, or 1.64%, to 1,869.1, while the S&P 500 gained 10.76 points, or 0.99%, to 10,94.83.

The surrounding Nortel began early in the day when CEO Bill Owens said the company is falling short of cost targets. The stock dropped 85¢ or 15.7% to $4.55 on volume of more than 37.5 million shares; that accounted for slightly less than 15% of the total volume on the TSX.

After the bell, TSX Group Inc. reported a more than 50% increase in its second-quarter profits, helped by higher listing and trading related revenue. The company also declared a quarterly dividend of 33¢ a common share, up from 25¢.