By James Langton

(October 11 – 09:00 ET) – In the absence of any economic news traders are focused on earnings today, particularly gloomy tech earnings. On target earnings and a morose conference call saw Yahoo! shares drop 9%. Telecoms are also slipping after a warning from Lucent Technologies. Motorola is guiding analysts lower, too.

The one firm that may benefit from this is the one that matters in Canada, Nortel Networks. Salomon and others say that Nortel is the reason Lucent is slumping. It is taking a huge share of the optical business away from Lucent.

In the United States, wholesale inventories are out at 10:00 ET and Dallas Fed President McTeer speaks this afternoon, but neither event should have much impact on markets.

There are no economic releases in Canada today, although the New Housing Price Index is reported up 0.3% from July to August. On an annual basis prices increased 2.4%. Ottawa-Hull registered the highest monthly rise; for the second consecutive month. Continued increased demand, along with higher prices for building materials, labour and land, pushed prices up 1.9%.

Oil prices are again pushing higher on tensions in the Middle East.

In Europe stocks are sliding heavily, with the mediocre Yahoo! results and weak Lucent spilling over to other names such as Alcatel. The FTSE is down 135 points to 6,112. The CAC 40 has dropped 155 points to 5,988. The DAX has lost 146 points to 6,527.

In M&A news, America Online Inc. has won approval from the European Union for its proposed US$147 billion purchase of Time Warner Inc. by agreeing to cut all links with Bertelsmann AG.

Enel SpA is buying Infostrada SpA for US$10.6 billion in cash, bonds and assumed debt from Vodafone Group plc.

Overnight in Asia stocks tanked on the heels of tech weakness in the U.S. The Nikkei closed down 314 points to 15,513. The Hang Seng dropped 427 points to 15,127.

In other business news, Air Canada says it will buy 14 Airbus Industrie jets. No price has been disclosed, but each jet lists around $60 million. Air Canada said it will take delivery of the aircraft in October 2001.

Laidlaw Inc. announced today that it is extending the expiration date of the consent solicitations relating to its debentures and notes originally scheduled to expire yesterday to Friday, October 13, 2000.