By James Langton

(October 21 – 09:00 EST) – Some negative comments from Big Blue after the close last night , sent markets for a slide this morning. Stocks were mixed in Europe and Asia after the IBM earnings announcement and S&P futures opened the day much lower this morning.

Overnight, IBM’s shares droppedabout 10% – down from the big gain made on the Dow yesterday. Contrary to expectations, IBM suggested its earnings may slide for the next two quarters since hardware purchases are down due to Y2K. These comments have analysts and traders worried about every hardware tech firm.

Statistics Canada reports retail sales rose 1.2% in August to $22.1 billion, slightly down from July’s 1.4% increase. But this month’s number marks the fourth consecutive monthly gain.

In Europe, stocks are mixed. The FTSE 100 is down 57 points. The DAX is down 45 points. In Paris, the CAC 40 is up 21 points. IBM is the big news there too, followed by good earnings news from Nokia, and the news that Mannesmann AG will buy U.K. cell firm, Orange PLC, for £21.8 billion (US$36 billion) in stock, cash and debt. Mannesmann is looking to dominate the European mobile-phone business.

The European Central Bank also announced that it will not raise interest rates today. That left the Euro virtually unchanged against other major currencies, but has analysts worried about its next announcement on November 4.

In Asia markets were nervous on the IBM news. The Japanese Nikkei closed down 86 points, while the Hang Seng managed a small gain, 24 points, on the news.

There is a slew of earnings news out this morning, including the following: Bell Canada lost $1.78 per share in the third quarter down from a 91¢ loss in the quarter last year. Methanex is reporting a 6¢ per share loss for the third quarter up from last year’s 12¢ loss. MacBlo is reporting 37¢ per share in fully-diluted net income, down from 56¢ in the period last year. ATI Technologies is reporting a fourth quarter profit of 8¢ per share down from 14¢ in the period last year. For the nine months ended September 30, Rogers says it earned $4.56 per share from $3.25 last year.