Wall Street stock futures were stronger on Wednesday morning after an upward revision to U.S. gross domestic product offset a report showing deeper-than-expected job losses in the private sector.

A report from the U.S. Commerce Department showed the economy contracted at a 0.7% rate in the second quarter, better than the earlier estimated 1% annual rate of decline.

Meanwhile, a closely watched report from payroll processing firm Automatic Data Processing and Macroeconomic Advisors showed that U.S. private sector employers dropped 254,000 jobs from their payrolls last month, more than the 240,000 jobs decline expected by economists.

The U.S. Labour Department’s monthly report on nonfarm payrolls comes out on Friday.

Here at home, Statistics Canada said real gross domestic product was unchanged in July, following a 0.1% increase in June.

Economists had expected GDP to grow 0.5% in July from the previous month.

Separately, StatsCan said the Industrial Product Price Index rose 0.5% in August and the Raw Materials Price Index was up 3.7% compared with July, mainly as a result of rising petroleum and metal prices.

The Canadian dollar rose 1.06 cents overnight to US93.18¢.

Oil prices firmed following a series of declines on demand concerns. The November crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 95¢ to US$67.66 a barrel.

The gold contract on the Nymex was ahead $7.60 to US$1,002 an ounce.

In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average closed up 0.3% while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng 0.3%.

In Europe, the UK’s FTSE 100 index rose 0.17%, Frankfurt’s DAX gained 0.22% while the Paris CAC 40 climbed 0.45%.

On Tuesday, the Toronto Stock Exchange advanced for a second consecutive session on Tuesday, led by strength in gold stocks.

The S&P/TSX composite index added 56.27 points, or 0.5%, to close at 11,394.99.

The sub-gold index jumped 2.7% and the materials group gained 1.9%, as gold futures registered small gains. Gold for December delivery gained 30 cents to close at US$994.40 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Junior stocks experienced a volatile day on the TSX Venture Exchange, but swung into positive territory by day’s end. The S&P/TSX Venture composite index closed at 1,272.31, up 2.58 points, or 0.2%.

In New York, an unexpected drop in the Conference Board’s monthly index of consumer confidence dragged stocks lower on Tuesday.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 47.16 points, or 0.5%, to 9,742.20.

The S&P 500 Index dropped 2.37 points, or 0.2%, to 1,060.61.

The Nasdaq composite index declined 6.7 points, or 0.3%, to 2,124.04.

IE