Wall Street stock futures edged lower Wednesday ahead of testimony from U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke before the U.S. House Budget Committee.

In this morning’s economic news, Automatic Data Processing said it expects U.S. private-sector jobs to have dropped by 532,000 in May, less than the 550,000 decrease expected by analysts.

Both the United States and Canada release there labour force surveys for May on Friday.

The U.S. economics calendar also features April factory orders, as well as the ISM non-manufacturing gauge.

Here at home, Statistics Canada said that median after-tax income, adjusted for inflation, for families with two or more people rose 3.7% from 2006 to $61,800 in 2007. Significant growth was observed in seven provinces, the government agency said.

Median after-tax income for unattached individuals rose 3.9% from 2006 to $24,200 in 2007, StatsCan added.

The Canadian dollar opened at US92.07¢, down 0.44 of a cent from Tuesday’s close.

In today’s earnings news, Bombardier Inc. reported a lower profit for the first quarter of fiscal 2010 as the economic downturn lead to weakness in the firm’s aerospace division.

The company said it earned US$158 million, or 9¢ a share during the quarter ended April 30, down from profits of $229 million, or 12¢ a share, recorded during the same quarter a year ago.

In commodities news, oil futures slipped 66¢ to US$67.89 a barrel ahead of U.S. weekly oil inventories data at 10:30 ET.

In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei stock average added 0.4%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 1%.

In European trading, Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 1.8%, Germany’s DAX index was down 0.7%, and France’s CAC-40 fell 1.1%.

The Toronto Stock Exchange was little changed on Tuesday, as gains in materials stocks were offset by energy group losses.

The S&P/TSX composite index finished down 15.27 points, or 0.1%, at 10,588.79.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture index also finished roughly flat on Tuesday, gaining 1.19 points, or 0.1%, at 1,141.74.

In New York, U.S. stocks ended slightly higher on Tuesday after promising news that pending sales of existing homes rose in April for the third month in a row.

The Dow Jones industrial average advanced 19.43 points, or 0.2%, to end at 8,740.87.

The S&P 500 index gained 1.87 points, or 0.2%, to close at 944.74.

The Nasdaq Composite index gained 8.12 points, or 0.4%, to close at 1,836.80.

IE