North American stock markets look set for a positive opening Wednesday, a day after the U.S. Federal Reserve signalled it would move carefully when raising interest rates.

The Fed, which did not raise interest rates at yesterday’s meeting, said shifts in its monetary policy are “likely to be measured,” easing fears of aggressive interest-rate hikes that could stifle growth in the U.S. economy and corporate profits.

Toronto traders will be digesting this mornings batch of earnings reports.

BCE Inc. increased its first-quarter profits helped by improved performance at its wireless and high-speed internet operations. The telecom giant said its profit attributable to common shareholders was $470 million or 51¢ per share for the three months ended March 31. That compared with a profit of $451 million or 50¢ per share for the same period a year earlier.

Torstar Corp. reported lower profits in the first quarter, primarily because of weak results in the company’s Harlequin book publishing division. Torstar said it earned $23 million or 29¢ a share for the three months ended March 31. That compared with profits of $25.1 million or 33¢ a share last year.

In other business news, Inmet Mining Corp. and Aur Resources Inc. are merging into a US$1 billion mining company with major copper operations around the world. Under the share swap deal announced today, existing Inmet shareholders would own 54.6% of the merged company, to be called Aur Mining Corp. Meanwhile, Aur stockholders would hold the remaining 45.4%.

Investors will be looking ahead to a report from the Institute of Supply Management, which will release its nonmanufacturing index for April at 10:00. ET. The reading on the U.S. service sector is expected to slip to 65.0 from 65.8 in March.


European markets are mixed at midday as London’s FTSE 100 index has gained 4.8 points or 0.1% to 4,552. Frankfurt’s DAX 30 is up 0.2%, while the Paris CAC 40 has slipped 0.1%.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index dropped 147.84 points, or 1.2%, to finish at 11,950.46.

Markets in Japan were closed for public holidays.

On Tuesday, Toronto stocks surged ahead, fuelled by rising commodity prices. The S&P/TSX composite index jumped 198.25 points, or 2.4%, to 8,455.85 on heavy volume of 317 million shares.

On Wall Street, stocks ended slightly higher after the Fed’s announcement on interest rates. The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 2.77 points at 10,316.77. The S&P 500 finished up 2.01 points at 1,119.50. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index gained 11.76 points to 1,950.48.