Futures trading pointed to a positive start for today’s trading and midday trading in Europe is up and Asian stock markets closed mostly higher. However, reports of U.S. gross domestic product and initial jobless claims were not as good as economists expected. That may serve to mitigate trading enthusiasm as the trading day begins.

U.S. GDP increased during January through March at a 4.4% annual rate, better than the 4.2% pace originally projected, says the U.S. Commerce Department. It pointed to higher inventory rebuilding as the reason behind the modest upward revision in first quarter GDP.

The new GDP projection was smaller than expectations — economists had forecast growth of 4.5%. In 2003, the economy grew 3.1% after advancing 2.2% in 2002 and 0.5% in 2001.

In a separate report, the U.S. Labour Department, announced that initial jobless claims fell by 3,000 to 344,000 in the week that ended May 22. That marked the first decline in three weeks. However, economists expected a larger decline in initial claims.

Meanwhile in Europe at midday, London’s FTSE-100 Share Index is up 0.29% at 4451.20, while in Paris the CAC-40 Index has risen 0.67% to 3684.47. Frankfurt’s Xetra Dax Index has gained 1.01% to 3906.59.

In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average of 225 issues inched up 13.94 points, or 0.12%, to 11,166.03. Tokyo traders bought into technology shares taking yesterday’s lead from American investors on the Nasdaq composite index, which rose 11.50 points to 1,976.15. Hong Kong shares rallied in heavy trading as investors bought up property and banking issues following stronger-than-expected land auction sales. The Hang Seng Index surged 291.34 points, or 2.5%, to 11,983.9.

The only economic report in Canada today was about the average weekly earnings of payroll employees, which increased by 0.4% in March, to stand 2.4% higher than March 2003. Following February’s substantial gain, the average hours for hourly paid workers in March were unchanged. Hourly earnings for March averaged $17.53. This was also unchanged from the previous month, but is 2.9% higher than the same month a year earlier. The overall number of payroll employees fell very slightly, down 2,900, in March.

In early earnings news, TD Bank Financial Group reported a quarterly profit of $511 million, reversing the loss of $273 million in the year-earlier quarter despite ongoing exposure to the Enron scandal. Net income in the fiscal second quarter came in at 21¢ a share vs the loss of 22¢ per share in the year-ago quarter, Toronto-based TD said Thursday.

On Wednesday, Toronto’s S&P/TSX composite index closed 35.24 points lower to 8,318.98. The TSX Venture Exchange was off 6.63 at 1,595.64.