Stocks may decline Wednesday morning amid further weakness in crude-oil prices and after U.S. energy giant Chevron said it expects results to be hurt by lower commodity prices.

After markets closed on Tuesday, Chevron said it expects fourth-quarter results to be adversely affected by lower commodity prices and lower downstream margins relative to third-quarter earnings.

In today’s economic news, the U.S. Commerce Department said the November U.S. trade deficit narrowed by 1% to $58.23 billion — reaching its lowest point since July 2005 — from US$58.80 billion in October. The November trade gap was lower than Wall Street’s expection of a deficit of US$60 billion

Canada’s merchandise exports rose 2.8% in November, halting two consecutive declines, with increases in all sectors but agriculture and forestry, Statistics Canada said today. Imports inched up 0.4% for the month.

Companies exported merchandise worth $38.1 billion in November while imports stood at $33.5 billion.

As a result, Canada’s merchandise trade surplus with the world widened to $4.7 billion from $3.8 billion in October, StatsCan said.

Separately, StatsCan reported that municipalities issued $6.3 billion in building permits in November. a record monthly high. StatsCan said it took Canada’s contractors only 11 months in 2006 to set a new annual record for the total value of building permits, thanks to strong residential and non-residential sectors.

The Canadian dollar opened at US85.01¢, down 0.01 of a cent.

Oil prices fell Wednesday on continued mild winter in the U.S. and ahead of the U.S. Department of Energy’s weekly snapshot of energy supplies.

Light sweet crude for February delivery dropped 55¢ to US$55.08 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midday in Europe.

In earnings news, Alcoa late Tuesday kicked off earnings season with a 60% jump in profit, citing higher metal prices and strong demand for aluminum in products.

Corus Entertainment Inc. said its first-quarter profit rose to $36.7 million from a year-earlier $31.4 million on strong revenue growth in broadcasting.

In M&A news, Onex Corp. has agreed to pay $2.8 billion for the health group of Eastman Kodak Co., which specializes in medical imaging and health-care information technology, including digital X-ray systems.

Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc. has confirmed it’s in exclusive talks with CanWest Global Communications Corp. and Goldman Sachs Capital about a possible sale.

US Airways Group Inc. is increasing its offer for Delta Air Lines Inc. by US$1.7 billion as it seeks to put pressure on the bankrupt carrier’s creditors to agree to a deal that management opposes. US Airways said it will pay US$10.2 billion for Delta, up from its Nov. 15 bid currently valued at US$8.5 billion.

Overseas, key European indexes slipped in early action.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index dropped 295.37 points, or 1.71%, to 16,942.4.

In Hong Kong, shares dropped for a third straight day. The Hang Seng Index fell 329.74 points, or 1.66%, to close at 19,568.34.

The Hang Seng has shed 643 points in the past three sessions, including Wednesday.

Resource and tech stocks combined to send the Toronto stock market lower again on Tuesday.

The S&P/TSX composite index fell 85.1 points to 12,467.99.

The index is down for four of the first six sessions of the year and has lost 3.4% so far this year.

The information technology sector fell 2% in the wake of a big decline in Research In Motion Ltd. Shares in the BlackBerry maker fell $12.82, or 7.7%, to $154.01 a day after hitting a new 52-week high.

RIM shares tumbled after Apple Compute CEO Steve Jobs announced production of the new iPhone. The new product combines a mobile telephone with its iPod music device. Apple shares rose 8.3% to US$92.57

Apple announced it will change its name to Apple Inc., reflecting its increasing focus on consumer electronics.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index declined 31.74 points to 2,799.91.

In New York, markets were mixed while investors weighed the potential impact of lower oil prices on the broader market and remained cautious about corporate earnings after Sprint Nextel Corp. issued a profit warning.

The Dow Jones industrial average declined 6.89 points to 12,416.6. The Nasdaq composite index climbed 5.63 points to 2,443.83 while the S&P 500 dipped 0.73 of a point to 1,412.11.