Friday is Independence Day in the United States. With futures and equity markets closed for the holiday, markets elsewhere in the world won’t have U.S. exchanges to look to for direction.

At midday in Europe the bourses are down. London’s FTSE 100 is down 9.10 at 4,015.70, or 0.23%. Frankfurt’s DAX 30 index is down 14.22 points, or 0.4%, to 3,227.7. Paris’s CAC 40 has slipped 9.3 points, or 0.3%, to 3,082.79.

Asian stocks finished mixed overnight, with investors reacting to the weak U.S. jobs data and Wall Street’s decline. Tokyo stocks finished moderately lower on profit-taking blue chips such as Kyocera, Canon and TDK. The Nikkei 225 stock average fell 77.07 points, or 0.8%, to end at 9,547.73. Hong Kong’s shares ended slightly lower after directionless trade.

In Canada, the stock to watch today is Air Canada. The company has made a major step forward in its restructuring efforts. Last night it announced that it has secured $1.8 billion in new loan and aircraft financing to help it fund operations after it restructures. A deal with General Electric Co.’s aviation unit provides $575 million in new debt for the company once it emerges from court-ordered bankruptcy protection.

In economic news, the Department of Finance announced today that Canada’s official international reserves decreased by an amount equivalent to US$724 million during June to US$36,699 million.

In New York yesterday, trading was light ahead of the Independence Day weekend and ended three hours early. Stocks closed lower as investors were unnerved by a larger-than-expected jump in unemployment.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 72.63 to close at 9,070.21.

The broader market also retreated. The Nasdaq composite index fell 15.27 to 1,663.46. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index declined 8.05 to 985.70.

But the major U.S. indices and averages ended the week higher because of the buying that took place Tuesday and Wednesday. The Dow ended the week up 0.9%, while the Nasdaq climbed 2.4% and the S&P rose 1%.