Wall Street stock futures moved higher on Thursday ahead of the two-day Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh.

G20 leaders are seeking ways to nurture the recovery from the recession and build safeguards against future catastrophes.

In today’s economic news, the U.S. Labour Department said that initial claims for jobless benefits fell 21,000 to 530,000 in the week ended Sept. 19. Continuing claims drawn by workers for more than a week in the week ended Sept. 12 fell by 123,000 to 6,138,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 6,261,000.

Here at home, the Canadian dollar was a fifth of a cent higher to US93.2¢.

In commodities news, the November crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange shed 38¢ to US$68.59 a barrel.

The December bullion contract on the Nymex rose US$1.90 to US$1,016.30 an ounce.

In corporate news, Canwest Global Communications Corp. is selling its majority stake in Australian broadcaster Ten Network Holdings Ltd. in a deal worth $634 million.

Overseas, Japanese shares made a solid showing on their first trading day after an extended holiday. The Nikkei 225 ended 1.7%, In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index ended 2.5% lower.

In Europe, the UK’s FTSE 100 was down 0.8% at 5,100, Frankfurt’s DAX declined 1.3% to 5,628.1 and Paris’s CAC-40 lost 1% to 3,782.2.

After a volatile day on the Toronto Stock Exchange, broad-based declines in late-day trading pulled the benchmark index into negative territory by Wednesday’s close.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed at 11,517.54, down 68.19 points, or 0.6%.

The sub-gold index plunged 2.8% as gold futures retreated.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index slipped by 3.78 points, or 0.3%, to close at 1,277.85.

In New York, the major U.S. stock market indices also finished lower as investors worried the Federal Reserve plans to scale back its efforts to stimulate the U.S. economy.

The Fed kept interest rates unchanged, as expected, but said it would slow purchases of mortgage debt to extend that program’s life until the end of March.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 81.32 points, or 0.8%, to 9,748.55.

The S&P 500 declined 10.79 points, or 1%, to 1,060.87.

The Nasdaq composite index fell 14.88 points, or 0.7%, to 2,131.42.

IE