TORONTO – The Toronto stock market appeared set to move slightly higher Thursday while traders prepared to take in the release of American job creation figures Friday and European leaders weighed the possibility of sanctions against Russia.

The Canadian dollar gained 0.18 of a cent to 90.78 cents US amid general greenback weakness while markets also looked to Canadian employment data coming out Friday.

U.S. futures were higher with the Dow Jones industrial futures up 22 points to 16,377, the Nasdaq futures gained 4.2 points to 3,732.5 and the S&P 500 futures were ahead six points to 1,357.97.

Harsh winter conditions have crimped job creation and expectations for the February non-farm payrolls report are muted. Economists looked for around 145,000 new positions to have been created last month after only 113,000 jobs were created during January.

In Canada, analysts looked for the economy to have created about 19,000 jobs last month.

Markets are still monitoring developments in Ukraine after getting off to a rocky start at the first of the week after Russia invaded the country’s Crimean peninsula. Russia has major military installations in Crimea and many people are Russian speaking.

European leaders said Thursday that Russia will face sanctions unless it withdraws its troops from Crimea or engages in credible talks to defuse the situation.

But leaders appeared divided between nations close to Russia’s borders and some western economic powerhouses — notably Germany — that were taking a more dovish line.

On the corporate front, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. (TSX:CNQ) said its quarterly adjusted net income came in at 52 cents per share, four cents below estimates. Cash flow per share was $1.64, which was 10 cents below the estimate. Its quarterly dividend will rise to 22.5 cents per shares, up two cents.

The National Energy Board is set to release a decision today on whether it will allow energy delivery giant Enbridge (TSX:ENB) to reverse the flow and increase the capacity of a pipeline that pump soil between southern Ontario and Montreal. Line 9 originally shuttled oil from Sarnia to Montreal, but was reversed in the late 90s in response to market conditions to pump imported crude westward. Enbridge now wants to flow oil back eastwards to service refineries in Ontario and Quebec.

Staples will close up to 225 stores in North America by the end of next year as it seeks to trim about $500 million in costs annually by 2015. The office-supply retailer also posted earnings which nearly tripled, but that is compared to a period when it booked $176.6 million in restructuring charges as it closed stores. Revenue slumped nearly 11 per cent to $5.87 billion.

On the commodity markets, April crude was down 71 cents to US$100.74 a barrel.

May copper was unchanged at US$3.20 a pound while April bullion declined $5.30 to US$1,335 an ounce.

Overseas, China’s finance minister said Thursday that creating jobs is the government’s priority this year and economic growth below the official target of 7.5 per cent might be acceptable. China’s economic growth tumbled to a two-decade low of 7.7 per cent last year.

London’s FTSE 100 index climbed 0.16 per cent, Frankfurt’s DAX was up 0.21 per cent and the Paris CAC 40 was ahead 0.75 per cent.