North American markets looked set to extend the previous day’s massive gains Wednesday, as Wall Street futures turned higher ahead of an expected interest-rate cut from the U.S. Federal Reserve.

The U.S. central bank is widely expected to cut short-term interest rates by a half percentage point. The Fed announcement is due at 14:15 ET.

Here at home, the Canadian dollar opened up 1.51¢ to US79.47¢ as commodity prices climbed.

Light sweet crude rose US$3.36 to US$66.09 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange ahead of weekly inventory data.

Gold gained US$10.40 to US$750.90.

In today’s earnings news, Suncor Energy Inc. reported a third quarter profit of $815 million, up from the $627 million posted during the same time period in 2007.

Procter & Gamble said its fiscal first-quarter earnings rose nearly 9% on strong growth in emerging markets.

Kraft Foods said its third-quarter earnings more than doubled because of a gain from the UA$2.6 billion sale of its Post cereals business.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average jumped 7.7 %.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index rose 5.6 % near midday in London. Germany’s DAX was up 0.5 %, and the Paris CAC-40 advanced 6.8 %.

Toronto stocks rocketed higher Tuesday following Monday’s steep fall. The S&P/TSX composite index surged ahead 614.29 points, or 7.2%, to 9,151.63.

The advance was the fourth-largest point gain ever for the benchmark index and matched its third biggest gain in terms percentage points.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index gained 7.95 points, or 0.98% to finish at 816.94.

In New York, U.S. stocks ended sharply higher as optimism that U.S. Federal Reserve will cut interest rates tomorrow offset gloomy economic news.

The Dow Jones industrial average shot up 889.35 points, or 10.88%, to end at 9,065.12. It was the Dow’s second biggest point gain in its history, the first being the 936.42 point gain on Oct. 13.

The S&P 500 surged 91.58 points, or 10.79%, to 940.50. The Nasdaq composite index jumped 143.57 points, or 9.53%, to close at 1,649.47.

IE