It should be a positive morning on the markets as stocks rebound from Friday’s sell-off on Wall Street. Lehman Brothers is telling its clients to boost their U.S. equity holdings.

In Europe, stocks are up, led by the banks. Credit Agricole is buying the rest of Credit Lyonnais, for US$16.4 billion. Energy stocks are higher following a rise in oil prices based on news that Venezuelan labour strikes continue to hurt its production and shipping.

The London FTSE is up 43 points to 3921. The Paris CAC 40 has gained 62 points to 3138. And the German DAX is 49 points higher at 3126.

Overnight in Asia, stocks were a bit weaker. The Nikkei dropped 65 points to sit at 8451. And, the Hang Seng lost 72 points to 9656.

In business news, Telus Corp. is boosting its earnings guidance for 2003. It has boosted its revenue guidance 4% to $7.3 billion, with EBITDA 8% to 12% higher to between $2.7 billion and $2.8 billion. And, it now sees earnings per share of 35¢ to 55¢ from previous guidance of a 75¢ loss.

Mosaic Group Inc. announced today that it has not made its December 13th and December 15th interest payments on its Senior Secured Term Debt Notes and COPrS Senior Subordinated Term Debt Notes.

ATI Technologies Inc. has disclosed that staff of the Ontario Securities Commission has raised concerns regarding the timeliness of the company’s earnings warning on May 24, 2000. OSC staff has raised concerns about trading that took place prior
to the announcement by certain insiders, including certain directors and officers. The board of directors of ATI has designated Paul Russo, a director who joined the ATI board in January 2002, to conduct an independent review of the concerns raised by
staff.