Stocks are poised to rally again today, as positive earnings announcements keep on coming.

Bullish talk from chip giant Intel Corp. is boosting tech stocks.

Financial issues aren’t faring so well as Merrill Lynch & Co. reported first-quarter profit fell 26%, and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. said it saw an 18% drop. Ford Motor Co. saw a first-quarter loss of US$800 million.

The latest victim of Enronitis is Adelphia Communications Corp. The firm says that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has opened a formal investigation into its books.

In economic news, the U.S. trade deficit widened to US$31.5 billion in February. Higher imports of autos, other consumer goods and business equipment were the culprits.

In Canada, it was reported that manufacturing shipments rose 0.8% to $42.1 billion in February, driven by the resurgence of the auto industry. This followed January’s 3.2% surge.

Also, Canada’s merchandise exports and imports posted increases in February. Exports rose to $33.7 billion worth of goods, up 2.7% from January’s revised level, the largest monthly rate of growth since May 2000. Merchandise imports, however, rose 5.1% from January, almost twice the pace of exports, to $29.1 billion. It was the strongest monthly rate of growth in imports since August 1998. As a result, Canada’s trade surplus fell for the first time in four months to just over $4.5 billion in February from nearly $5.1 billion in January.

In Europe, stocks are up on hopes of economic recovery. The FTSE has gained 27 points to 5,287. The CAC 40 gained 22 points to 4,620. The DAX has added eight points to 5,352.

Overnight in Asia, stocks rallied strongly following the U.S. The Nikkei gained 197 points to 11,544. The Hang Seng added 302 points to 11,091.

In local earnings news, Celestica Inc. reports that net earnings for the first quarter were $40 million, compared to net earnings of $55 million last year.

CP Ships Limited announced an unaudited first quarter 2002 operating loss of US $6 million, down from an operating profit of $31 million in the first quarter 2001. Net loss was $11 million compared to net income of $25 million in the same period in 2001.