North American stocks appear set to stumble Wednesday, amid disappointment in earnings reports from General Motors, Intel and Yahoo.

On the earnings front, a slew of Dow components reported before the opening bell. General Motors posted a loss of US$286 million and said revenue fell.

J.P. Morgan Chas., the third-largest U.S. bank, reported second-quarter earnings of US$994 million, or 28¢ a share, ahead of reduced Wall Street earnings’ projections despite a sharp drop in trading revenue.

HSBC Bank Canada said its profit rose 19.5% in fourth-quarter profit, to $104 million.

After the closing bell Tuesday, Intel and Yahoo delivered what appeared, on first glance, to be solid earnings reports. But investors weren’t impressed.

Intel said its profit rose 16% on a 15% jump in revenue and the chip maker predicted another 16% sales gain this quarter with a significant increase in profit margins. Intel’s earnings came in slightly ahead of expectations, and revenue was in line with forecasts, but some investors had expected the tech bellwether to deliver and upside surprise and higher profit margins.

Yahoo said its net rose almost sevenfold and sales surged 51%. Excluding a gain on the sale of Google shares, earnings would have been in line with analysts’ expectations. That wasn’t enough to satisfy some investors’ expectations, and Yahoo shares slid 10% in after-hours trading.

There are no major U.S. economic indicators on the calendar today, but investors will be focused on Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan’s monetary-policy testimony before the House, which begins at 10:00 ET.

Here at home, Statistics Canada said wholesale sales rose for the fourth consecutive month in May, edging up 0.2% after jumping 1.2% in April.

Analysts had called for an increase of 0.5%.

Separately, the government agency said the leading index rose by 0.3% in June, the same increase as in May.

Economists had expected a rise of 0.1%.

North American stocks surged Tuesday as corporate news spurred gains on both sides of the border.

In Toronto, the S&P/TSX composite index finished up 100.21, or 0.99%, to end 10,263.24

Shares of Metro Inc. climbed $3.75, or 13.64%, to $31.25 after the grocer announced it’s buying the A&P Canada supermarket chain in a cash and shares deal worth $1.7 billion.

Rival Sobeys Inc. fell $3.03, or 7.37%, to close $38.10, while Loblaw was down 83¢, or 1.14%, to close $71.97.

Shoppers Drug Mart Corp. reported its second-quarter profit gained more than 16% to $80 million. Nevertheless, its shares fell 35¢, or 0.84%, to $41.45.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture Composite index finished up 10.08, or 0.59%, to close 1,728.02.

In New York, positive second-quarter earnings announcements cheered the markets.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 71.57 points, or 0.58%, to close 10,646.56; the Nasdaq composite index lifted 28.31, or 1.32%, to close 2,173.18; and the S&P 500 index gained 8.22, or 0.67%, to 1,229.35.

International Business Machines reported late Monday that it had shown a net profit of US$1.83 billion, beating analyst forecasts. IBM stock rose $1.92 to US$83.73.

Brokerage giant Merrill Lynch & Co. also saw its second-quarter profits rise 6% from a year ago to US$1.14 billion. Merrill shares lifted $1.32 to US$57.99.