North American stocks look set to open little changed Wednesday ahead of the Federal Reserve’s decision on U.S. interest rates later today.

The Federal Open Market Committee is expected to raise its federal funds target rate to 5% at its policy meeting. This would be the 16th straight meeting over almost two years with a quarter-percentage point increase.

The Fed release is due out at 14:15 ET.

The Canadian dollar opened at US91.01¢, up 0.14 of a cent.

On Tuesday, loonie gained a full cent to US90.87¢, its highest close in more than 28 years. In intra-day trading, the loonie hit a high of US91.92¢.

In earnings news, GMP Capital Trust is raising its monthly distributions by 20% after posting a record $38.6-million first-quarter profit on the back of continued strength in Canadian equity markets.

Toyota Motor reported a 39% rise in its fourth-quarter net profit, driven by stronger sales in North America and cost-cutting efforts.

Penn West Energy Trust, which is planning to merge with Petrofund Energy Trust, said Tuesday its first-quarter profit more than doubled on higher commodity prices and lower income-tax provisions.

Walt Disney reported its second-quarter profit rose 12%, as strong gains at its ABC television network offset another gloomy quarter at the movie studio.

Cisco Systems is expected to move lower after it said late Tuesday that fiscal third-quarter profit dipped slightly. Its forecast for the current quarter was below expectations.

The price of gold rose to a fresh 25-year high Wednesday as investors sought a safe harbour amid a weakening U.S. dollar. June gold futures rose as high as US$706.80 an ounce in electronic trading, the highest since September 1980 and up from its settlement Tuesday of US$701.50 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Crude-oil prices were unchanged at US$70.69 a barrel in early trading Wednesday ahead of a U.S. government petroleum inventories report that is expected to show domestic gasoline stocks rose for the second straight week.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fell 238.98 points, or 1.39%, closing at 16,951.93 points.

In Hong Kong, the blue-chip Hang Seng Index fell 53.4 points, or 0.3% , to 17,080.59.

Toronto stocks closed higher Tuesday, pushed along by big gains in commodities, in a session that saw the Canadian dollar hitting record highs.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 34.01, or 0.28%, to 12,328.21.

The S&P/TSX Venture Exchange index gained 71.30 points to close at 3,251.03.

In New York, markets were mixed in anticipation of today’s funds rate announcement from the U.S. Federal Reserve.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 55.23 points to 11,639.77. The Nasdaq composite index fell 6.74 points to 2,338.25, while the S&P 500 fell 0.48 of a point to 1,325.14.