Orders for U.S. durable goods climbed 2.1% in June, exceeding analyst expectations.

Transportation orders rose 3.9%, led by a 20% surge in orders for non-defense aircraft and parts. Orders for motor vehicles climbed 2.2%, and defense-aircraft orders were up 2.5%.

Wall Street futures have been reacting positively to the news, pointing to a positive open for North American equity markets.

Meanwhile in Canada, investors got bad news from Noranda Friday, as well as weak results from Nortel Networks and JDS Uniphase after the bell Thursday.

Noranda slashed its quarterly dividend by 40% to 12¢ from 20¢. It is also issuing $500 million worth of new shares and taking on $300 million in new debt. Meanwhile, the international metal producer reported a $15 million quarterly loss.

Nortel Networks reported a second-quarter loss of US$14 million due to amid continued cautious spending by its telecommunication-sector customers. The loss is significantly less than the loss reported a year ago of $697 million.

JDS Uniphase also reported a loss. The company lost US$61.6 million, compared with the write-down of $1.04 billion in the same quarter a year ago.

In Europe markets are sluggish with London’s FTSE 100 index down 13.2 points at 4,136.2. In Frankfurt, the DAX dropped 0.5% while the Paris CAC40 is down 1%.

In Asia markets finsihed the week mixed. Tokyo’s Nikkei average slipped 22.99 points to 9,648.01. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index climbed 16.06 points to 9,939.20 due to profit-taking.