The Canadian Press

The Toronto stock market looked set for a lower open Wednesday amid weak commodity prices and rising concern about American jobless figures coming out on Friday.

The Canadian dollar was down a tenth of a cent to US94.41¢.

U.S. futures pointed to a generally weak open as the Dow Jones industrial futures declined 16 points to 10,208, the Nasdaq futures declined 1.25 points to 1,767.75 and the S&P 500 futures moved two points lower to 1,095.2.

Outplacement firm Challenger Gray and Christmas reported that planned layoff announcements at major U.S. corporations increased 59% in January to 71,482. That was up sharply from a nine-year low of 45,094 racked up in December. It was the first month-to-month increase since July.

And the ADP employment report says that private-sector firms in the U.S. eliminated 22,000 jobs in January, the 24th decline in a row.

Expectations had been high for Friday’s January non-farm payrolls report in the U.S., with economists predicting the economy added about 20,000 jobs last month.

Canadian employment data for January also comes out Friday. Economists expect that 15,000 jobs were added during the month.

The key piece of economic data later Wednesday will be the Institute for Supply Management’s monthly survey into the services sector and investors will be looking to see if it comes in as strong as the manufacturing equivalent earlier this week. The ISM’s better-than-expected report released Monday on the U.S. manufacturing sector helped markets rally after retreating much of the final two weeks of January.

Meanwhile, commodities were mixed, with the March crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange unchanged at US$77.23 a barrel.

Investors continued to take in earnings from the energy industry. A day after Suncor Energy (TSX:SU) delivered a disappointing earnings report, Imperial Oil Ltd. (TSX:IMO) reported that its profits dropped by 19% during the final quarter of 2009 compared with the previous year, with the biggest challenges coming from the refining and marketing part of its business.

Canada’s largest petroleum refiner said Tuesday it earned $534 million, or 62¢ per share. That came in below the expectations of seven analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, who on average had been expecting earnings of 71¢ per share.

Calgary-based pipeline operator Enbridge Inc. (TSX:ENB) says its fourth-quarter net earnings increased 14% to $300 million or 80¢ a share before adjustments. The showing missed estimates by a penny a share.

Enbridge Inc. (TSX:ENB) also announced its pipeline system has been chosen to carry production from the Leismer oilsands project owned by Statoil Canada Ltd. The Statoil Leismer project become the sixth to use Enbridge’s regional oilsands system, an important element in getting energy from northern Alberta to users.

The April bullion contract on the Nymex was up 20¢ to US$1,118.20 an ounce while March copper was down 3¢ to US$3.06 a pound.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average added 0.3% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 2.2%.

London’s FTSE 100 index slipped 0.04%, Frankfurt’s DAX was off 0.21% and the Paris CAC 40 rose 0.3%.