TORONTO - North American markets appear ready to pare their gains Friday as investors tread cautiously ahead of U.S. personal spending data. A day after stocks rallied on solid earnings at consumer brands such as Best Buy, investors remain focused on average Americans' spending power. The Commerce Department is expected to report Friday that personal consumption rose modestly in February. Signals out of the corporate world, meanwhile, were downbeat. Late Thursday, Internet powerhouse Google Inc. said it is laying off nearly 200 workers, while technology consulting and outsourcing firm Accenture lowered its outlook for the quarter and the year. The pair of negative announcements sapped strength from technology stocks, which surged Thursday and pushed the Nasdaq composite index into positive territory for the year. Toronto's S&P/TSX composite index closed up 198.06 points on Thursday to 8,995.5, its best level since early February. New York's Dow Jones industrial average gained 174.75 points to 7,924.56. Ahead of the market's open, Dow Jones industrial average futures fell 65, or 0.8 per cent, to 7,784. Standard & Poor's 500 index futures fell 6.80, or 0.8 per cent, to 820.50, and Nasdaq 100 index futures fell 9.50, or 0.8 per cent, to 1,263.50. The Canadian dollar opened at 81.06 cents US, down 0.31 of a cent from Thursday's close. Crude oil fell 91 cents to US$53.43 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 0.1 per cent. In midday trading, Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.4 per cent, Germany's DAX index fell 0.1 per cent, and France's CAC-40 fell 0.3 per cent.

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