Toronto's main stock index opened a tad higher on Thursday, although falling commodity prices could hold back the resource-heavy index.
The S&P/TSX Composite nipped up 10.38 points in the first hour of trading to 11,738.79
The Canadian dollar garnered 0.27 cents to 97.87 cents U.S.
On a day sparing in company news, Morguard Real Estate Investment Trust said it acquired a 50% stake in two office complexes in Calgary and Edmonton for $80.7 million.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange dropped 9.47 points to 1,441.61, while the Nasdaq Canada index edged up 1.12 points to 363.40
All but four of the 14 Toronto subgroups were positive to start off the session. Consumer staples picked up 0.8%, while real-estate progressed 0.4%, and financials gained 0.3%.
The four laggards were weighed mostly by gold and materials stocks, each subgroup off 0.5%, and health-care, down 0.1%.
ON WALLSTREET
In New York, stocks opened higher Thursday following a report on jobless claims that came in higher than expected but remained below a key level.
The Dow Jones Industrials soared 72.32 points to 12,223.70
The S&P 500 moved up 6.43 points to 1,256.07, while the Nasdaq Composite progressed 6.08 points to 2,596.06.
Financial stocks were among the early gainers, with shares of JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America all moving higher.
Shares of Yahoo edged higher after reports that China's Alibaba Group has hired a lobbying firm to prepare a bid for Yahoo.
Shares of BP fell following reports that employees could face criminal charges in relation to last year's Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
Traders and analysts said low volume, typical of the holiday week, has led to more pronounced swings, and some of the moves are coming from year-end portfolio rebalancing rather than convictions over the trajectory of the market or particular stocks.
Stocks closed down more than 1% Wednesday, pushing the S&P back into negative territory for the year. The Nasdaq is down roughly 2% for 2011.
Despite Wednesday's selloff, the Dow remains up 5% for 2011.
On Thursday, an auction of Italian 10-year bonds, which have seen yields continue to flirt with the 7% danger zone, provided muted results. While yields were reported below prior levels, demand was short.
On the economic ledger, jobless claims rose 15,000 to 381,000 in the latest week, according to the U.S. Labor Department. Analysts surveyed by Briefing.com had expected 368,000 claims.
But the figure remained below 400,000, giving investors hope that the labor market will strengthen in the New Year.
Elsewhere, the National Association of Realtors will release the November installment of its Pending Home Sales Index. This figure, which measures signed sales contracts but not closed sales, is expected to have risen by 0.6% after shooting up 10.4% in October.
The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury faded, pushing the yield up to 1.93% from 1.91% Wednesday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil for January delivery subsided 42 cents to $98.94 U.S. a barrel.
Gold futures for February delivery fell $25.90 to $1,538.20 U.S. an ounce.
