North American stocks appear headed for a flat opening Thursday as investors weigh decent earnings from General Electric against a much-awaited U.S. retail sales report.

Today marks the last trading session of the week, with the markets closed tomorrow for Good Friday ahead of the Easter holiday.

U.S. bond markets will close early this afternoon, at 14:00 ET.

In this morning’s economic news, the U.S government reported that retail sales bounced back during March, up a seasonally adjusted 0.6%, as spending picked up for cars and furniture. Import prices declined 0.4% for the month. Meanwhile, U.S. weekly initial jobless claims rose by 12,000.

Here at home, Statistics Canada said lower prices for several resource-based industries contributed to a sizeable drop in manufacturing shipments in February, and a spike in the inventory-to-shipment ratio.

Shipments tumbled 2.2% to $50.7 billion in February, the third decline in the last four months.

The Canadian dollar opened at US87.26¢, up 0.02 of a cent.

In earnings news, General Electric posted results that met expectations. First-quarter net income rose 8.6% to 41¢ a share, as revenue rose 10% to US$37.8 billion. GE, which had a somewhat disappointing fourth quarter, also reaffirmed fiscal-year earnings expectations.

Overseas, Asian markets closed mixed as shares in Tokyo and Hong Kong rose.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index edged up 0.2%, ending three straight days of losses ahead of the long weekend.

In Hong Kong, the blue-chip Hang Seng Index rose 118.69 points, or 0.7%.

In Europe, markets got a boost from French retailer Carrefour SA and an upgrade of electronics giant Philips ahead of quarterly results due Thursday. The French CAC-40 index added 0.4%, the German DAX Xetra 30 gained 0.2% and the FTSE 100 increased 0.3%


Toronto stocks were off slightly Wednesday, after a triple-digit drop in the previous session, on continued weakness among financials issues and in the telecommunications sector.

The S&P/TSX composite index fell 9.60, or 0.08%, to 12,167.70. In yesterday’s session, the market lost 112.40 or 0.91%.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index gained 13.30, or 0.44%, to 3,004.70.

U.S. stocks ended higher on good corporate news from the likes of Boeing, despite continued geopolitical stability worries and interest rates.

The Dow industrials closed up 40.34 points at 11,129.97, off a high of 11,144.14, the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 4.33 points to 2,314.68, while the S&P 500 Index gained 1.55 point to 1,288.12.