By James Langton

(December 7 – 09:30 ET) – Another earnings warning has tech stocks bracing for a fall today, likely taking the broader market with them.

Today Motorola Inc. said its fourth-quarter results will fall short of expectations, shaving 5% from its revenue and earnings forecasts. The company blames the miss on delays in reducing manufacturing costs and slowing demand for semiconductors.

Also weighing on the techs is a report from Goldman Sachs analyst Rich Sherlund in which he cut his sales and earnings estimates for Microsoft Corp.

On the economic front, Statistics Canada reported that capacity use eased to 86.9% in the third quarter, after seven straight quarterly increases. Declines in utilization included manufacturing, where half of the industry groups showed lowered rates, as did all non-manufacturing industries except for gas distribution systems.

Although total industrial output grew in the third quarter, exports declined slightly for the first time in more than three years. These numbers add more evidence to view of a slowing economy.

In the United States, initial jobless claims fell 9,000 last week, indicating to some economists that the demand for labour is easing. This is important to the Federal Reserve Board which fears labour market inflation.

The big factor for European stocks today is the Motorola warning. Also the slowing U.S. economy continues to pump up the euro, too. On the stock front the numbers are down across the board. The FTSE has dropped 103 points to 6,169. The CAC 40 is down 67 points to 5,918. The DAX is down 83 to 6,539.

In M&A news, Abbey National plc has rejected a friendly take-over overture from Lloyds TSB Group plc. Lloyds TSB may now embark on a hostile bid to buy Britain’s second-largest mortgage lender.

Overnight in Asia stocks fell on yesterday’s tech weakness. The Nikkei dropped 169 points to 14,720. The Hang Seng slipped 87 points to 15,011.

In other news, Gildan Activewear reported net earnings of $1.14 a share for the last quarter, compared with 71¢ a share in the period last year.

Pivotal Corp. has announced that it has completed the acquisition of the CRM unit of Dallas-based Software Spectrum Inc.