North American markets appeared headed for a flat open Wednesday as investors hesitate to make big bets ahead of the release of key economic data, including Friday’s looming U.S. jobs report.

Although earnings and economic news continue to be fairly upbeat, investors are wary of the market getting too high too quickly and analysts have been expecting stocks to drift after such a big move.
Additionally, investors await the U.S. government’s monthly employment report on Friday, one of the month’s most important pieces of economic data. While the unemployment rate is anticipated to creep as high as 10% this year, there is concern that the labour market is not stabilizing.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei 225 Average ended down 1.2% at 10,252.53 after ending at a 10-month high in the previous session, while the broader Topix Index snapped out of a 13-session winning run to end 1% down.

After each recording gains in the previous four sessions, China’s Shanghai composite dropped 1.2%, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 1% and South Korea’s Kospi gave up 0.4%.

Meanwhile, European stock markets have floated around the flat line Wednesday, with investors dissecting the latest corporate results for clues about the extent of the economic recovery.

The Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index was up 0.1% at 228.10, while London’s FTSE 100 index was down 0.2% to 4565.51, Frankfurt’s DAX Xetra was down 0.4% at 5395.7, and the CAC-40 index in Paris was 0.1% higher at 3482.7.

On Tuesday, strength in commodities stocks and promising economic news from south of the border helped carry the Toronto Stock Exchange’s benchmark index sharply higher. The S&P/TSX composite index surged 230.95 points, or 2.1%, to close at 11,018.10.

Junior stocks on the S&P/TSX Venture Exchange also advanced on Tuesday. The S&P/TSX Venture composite index finished at 1,195.98, up 16.41 points, or 1.4%.

The Canadian dollar gained a quarter of a cent on Tuesday to close at US93.07¢.

The Dow Jones industrial average added 33.63 points, or 0.4%, to close at 9,320.19.

The S&P 500 index rose 3.02 points, or 0.3%, to end at 1,005.65.

The Nasdaq composite index gained 2.7 points, or 0.1%, to finish at 2,011.31.

IE