By James Langton

(November 21 – 09:00 ET) – There’s a positive tone in the market for a change this morning. Nortel Networks is looking up after it reaffirmed its expectations for strong growth in its optical, wireless and Internet equipment businesses through 2001.

Nortel is up in pre-market trading, suggesting analysts agree with the networking giant. Also this morning Nortel rival Lucent announced that it is investigating a revenue recognition issue that could jeopardize US$125 million in revenue.

On the economic front, Canada’s Consumer Price Index came out in line with expectations. The headline rate up to 2.8%, while the core is running at 1.5%, right in the middle of the Bank of Canada’s target band. Economists agree that this gives the central bank no reason to hike rates any time soon.

In the United States, the trade deficit widened to a record US$34.3 billion in September as imports of heating oil, chemicals, other petroleum products and natural gas surged while exports fell. The trade deficit was expected to grow, but only to US$31 billion.

In Europe, stocks are up. The FTSE has gained 12 to 6,357. The CAC 40 is up 67 to 6,089. The DAX is up 17 to 6,627.

There’s no big merger news yet today, but Nasdaq Canada is opening for business in Montreal this morning.

Stocks were bounced last night in Asia, on the heels of Wall Street selling. The Nikkei dropped 123 points to 14,408. The Hang Seng dropped 158 to 15,188.

In earnings news this morning, Descartes Systems is reporting net income in the third quarter ended October 31 rose to 2¢ a share, before acquisition-related charges, compared with a 10¢ a share loss in the period last year.

PRI Automation reports improved results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended September 30, with net income on a pro forma basis coming in at 6¢ a share, compared with a net loss of 23¢ a share last year.

However, during the quarter, the company incurred $25.3 million in special charges related principally to manufacturing problems. Considering these charges it lost 96¢ a share in the quarter and 34¢ a share on the year.