Toronto's main stock index looked set to open little changed on Thursday as investors focused on U.S. budget talks after President Barack Obama said a deal was possible in "about a week" if Republicans compromise on taxes.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 20.11 points to end Wednesday 12,157.29
The Canadian dollar took on 0.04 cents to 100.85 cents U.S. Thursday morning.
Toronto-Dominion Bank's reported a flat quarterly profit and said it would buy Epoch Holding Corp, which owns Epoch Investment Partners, for $668 million in cash.
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce reported a 13% increase in quarterly earnings, driven by higher income from its wholesale banking and wealth management businesses.
National Bank of Canada's fourth-quarter profit rose 20% driven by a sharp jump in markets-related revenue, and the bank raised its dividend by 5%.
Canadian dollar-store operator Dollarama Inc's third-quarter profit rose 23% on higher sales and new store openings.
Research In Motion outlined a step-by-step program to help its large base of enterprise clients transition across to its soon to be launched new BlackBerry 10 platform.
On the economic calendar, Statistics Canada reported this morning that the total value of building permits in this country rose 15.0% to $7.5 billion in October, following a 12.7% decline in September, mostly due to higher construction intentions for non-residential buildings, mostly in Ontario and Quebec.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange eased 8.32 points Wednesday to 1,184.54.
ON WALLSTREET
U.S. stock futures were little changed Thursday, after markets finished mostly higher Wednesday.
The Dow Jones Industrials futures inched back two points to 13,022, while S&P 500 futures fell back four points, or 0.3%, to 1,404.30, and futures for the tech-rich Nasdaq gave back 9.5 points, or 0.4%, to 2,628
The U.S. government's latest jobless claims data came out before the opening bell. The U.S. Labor Department reported that the number of Americans filing for first-time unemployment insurance dropped 25,000 to 370,000 last week.
Meanwhile, the fiscal cliff continues to keep investors on edge. President Obama told members of the Business Roundtable Wednesday that there has been "some movement" on the Republican side toward allowing rates to rise on high-income taxpayers. If this continues, he said, "we can probably solve this in about a week."
Obama was adamant that going over the fiscal cliff for political purposes would harm the economy by jeopardizing America's credit rating.
In corporate news Thursday, lululemon athletica reported third-quarter earnings that topped expectations, but its guidance for the fourth quarter fell short of forecasts. Shares of the athletic clothing maker slid more than 2% in pre-market trading.
European markets were up in morning trading, with Nokia leading the way after China Mobile agreed to sell the Finnish company's Lumia 920 handset.
The European Central Bank announced Thursday morning that it will leave rates unchanged. But investors will be listening to comments from ECB head Mario Draghi at a press conference following the decision for any hint of a cut in rates next year.
Asian markets ended mixed, showing little unified movement as Japan's Nikkei got a boost from a weakening yen and new polls ahead of Election Day.
Oil prices doffed 51 cents a barrel to $87.37 U.S.
Gold prices lost $4.80 an ounce to $1,689 U.S.
