Source: The Canadian Press

The Toronto stock market appeared on its way to a higher open Wednesday as commodities buoyed and investors seemed optimistic after U.S. President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address.

The Canadian dollar was up 0.14 of a cent to 100.38 cents US, regaining some of the ground it lost Tuesday.

Gold pared losses recorded Tuesday and the February bullion contract was down 70 cents to $1331.60 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The March copper contract added a penny to $4.24.

The March crude contract was up 61 cents to US$86.80 a barrel after falling more than 4% in less than a week on mixed economic news and the possibility of increased OPEC production.

In corporate earnings, Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. (TSX:CP) said its net income was $186 million, or $1.09 in the fourth quarter, up 27% from a year earlier and ahead of estimates of $1.08 per share.

Dow Jones futures added 20 points to 11,942, while Nasdaq futures gained 7.5 points to 2308.75 and S&P 500 futures were up 4.9 points to 1292.5.

Investors welcomed Obama’s annual State of the Union speech, particularly his proposal to cut corporate taxes and boost spending for education, innovation and infrastructure in the world’s largest economy.

The promises helped buoy stock indexes ahead of a monetary policy announcement by the Federal Reserve. The Fed is not expected to alter its current monetary stance, with the main interest rate at the record low of near 0% and the central bank in the middle of a $600 billion injection of newly created money into the U.S. economy.

However, investors will be looking for any noticeable change in views on the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee.

In the U.S., Xerox, Eastman Kodak, United Technologies and WellPoint all released quarterly results before the market opens Wednesday. Starbucks, Qualcomm and Netflix report their earnings after the market closes.

Eastman Kodak said its fourth-quarter net income tumbled 95% from a large gain a year ago and it missed Wall Street expectations. Xerox also said its fourth-quarter earnings dipped 5% from a year ago

In Europe, sentiment was on the rise after another successful bond auction by Spain, which calmed worries that it could run into funding problems, and high demand for the European bailout facility’s first round of fundraising.

Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 1.3% , Germany’s DAX was 1.3% higher and France’s CAC-40 index was up 0.9% to 4,055.94.