TORONTO -- The Toronto stock market headed for a higher open Wednesday with investors encouraged by strong earnings results from Canadian National Railway (TSX:CNR) and Apple Inc. The Canadian dollar was down 0.18 of a cent to 80.44 cents US. U.S. futures were positive after sustaining steep losses Tuesday in the wake of major earnings disappointments from market heavyweights including Caterpillar and Microsoft. The Dow Jones industrial futures rose 37 points to 17,415, the Nasdaq futures climbed 37.5 points to 4,215 while the S&P 500 futures were ahead nine points to 2,039. Traders also focused on the U.S. Federal Reserve, which ends its latest policy meeting with an announcement mid-afternoon. It is widely expected to reiterate that it will be "patient" in raising interest rates from record lows. Markets have generally expected the Fed to hike around the middle of this year. But given recent global economic downgrades and rate cuts in Canada, Norway and Denmark, analysts say it`s very possible the Fed could move much later. After the close Tuesday, CN said that quarterly profit surged by nearly a third to $844 million. That amounted to $1.03 per share, six cents ahead of estimates. Revenue was up nearly 17 per cent at $3.2 billion, ahead of estimates that called for $3.12 billion. CN said its operating ratio, which tracks operating expenses as a percentage of revenue, declined 4.1 percentage points to 60.7 per cent. The operating ratio is a measure of efficiency in which lower is better. And Apple said its net income for the last quarter rose 38 per cent to $18 billion or $3.06 a share while revenue hit $74.6 billion as it sold 74.5 million iPhones during the quarter, which also beat estimates. Analysts surveyed by FactSet were expecting earnings of $2.60 a share on revenue of $67.39 billion. Its shares were up about nine per cent in pre-market trading. Oil prices retreated with March crude down 75 cents to US$45.48 a barrel. Oil prices fell after the American Petroleum Institute said Tuesday that crude oil supplies in the U.S. rose 13 million barrels in the last week, a much higher level than the 3.5 million barrels expected by analysts. Prices have plunged 40 per cent just since the end of November when Saudi Arabia opted to leave production levels unchanged. They are also down about 55 per cent from the highs registered last summer because of a glut of supply on world markets. Cenovus Energy (TSX:CVE) has joined a growing list of energy producers making big cuts in their spending plans because of the fall in prices and the liklihood that they will stay low for some time. Cenovus has lowered its 2015 capital budget to between C$1.8 billion and $2 billion, which is about $700 million less than the previous estimate and more than 15 per cent below last year's spending levels. On Wednesday, Barclays further cut its outlook for West Texas Intermediate, used as the North American benchmark for prices. Barclays expects WTI to average US$42 a barrel in 2015, down from its December 1 forecast of $66. It expects WTI to rise to $57 a barrel in 2016. Elsewhere on commodity markets, gold declined $1.80 while March copper edged up a penny to US$2.47 a pound after tumbling eight cents on Tuesday.

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