Investors will be able to buy a piece of Tim Hortons today when shares in the doughnut chain start trading on the Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges.

Shares in Tim Hortons are going public at $27 each and the chain is allocating 60% of the shares for Canadian investors, but large institutional investors will likely get the majority of those shares.

Tim Hortons will raise $780 million through its initial public offering.

Google, already up 8.7% in pre-market trading on Inet, is expected to rally further after being made a member of the S&P 500 index. The search engine giant will be added to the index as of the close of trading on March 31.

In today’s economic news, orders for U.S. durable-goods rose 2.6% in February as demand for aircraft and defense capital equipment soared, but a closely watched gauge of business spending fell 2.3%.

The Canadian dollar opened at US85.51¢, down 0.31 of a cent.

Wall Street futures were flat to negative while crude-oil prices eased early Friday.

Light sweet crude for May delivery fell 11¢ to US$63.80 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

European indexes were mixed.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index added 71.5 points, or 0.43%, to finish at 16,560.87 points on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

In Hong Kong, the blue-chip Hang Seng Index fell 62.82 points, or 0.4%, to 15,708.35.

Toronto stocks advanced Thursday, moving over the 12,000-point plateau for the third time this year, propelled by energy and commodity prices.

The S&P/TSX composite index gained 47.26 points, or 0.39%, to 12.017.91.

The S&P/TSX Venture composite index gained 18.27, or 0.68%, to 2,700.99.

In New York, stocks ended lower oil prices rose an unexpected jump in existing home sales gave investors jitters about rising interest rates.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 47.14 points to 11,270. The Nasdaq composite index eased 3.20 points to 2,300.15, while the S&P 500 slipped 3.37 points to 1,301.67.