North American markets are expected to open flat Wednesday after a big sell-off yesterday, sparked by Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan’s remarks that inflation is a concern.

The composite leading index rose by 0.7% in March, after upward revised gains of 0.6% in January and February and 0.5% in December, Statistics Canada reported today.

This upturn is attributable to an increase in the number of components expanding to 7 out of 10, one more than in February and two more than in January, StatsCan said.

The housing component swung from negative to positive territory in March. Manufacturing and the U.S. leading indicator continued to drive overall growth for the third straight month.

Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge will address the House of Commons finance committee in Ottawa this afternoon.

Yesterday Dodge told the Senate banking committee that the era of low interest rates is coming to an end, and that Canada needs to reconsider manadatory retirement in several industries.

In other economic news, the U.S. Federal Reserve will release its Beige Book later today, which provides a summary of economic conditions in the 12 Fed districts.

In this morning’s earnings news, Coca-Cola Co. cited strong growth in North America and several international markets as it reported a 35% jump in first-quarter profits on a 13% increase in revenue. The results beat Wall Street expectations.

Nestle reported a 3.5% rise in first-quarter sales to 20.41 billion Swiss francs (US$15.6 billion).

In other business news, Research In Motion says Motorola Inc. has signed a deal to license RIM’s BlackBerry communications technology.

After markets closed yesterday, the federal government announced its approval Manulife Financial Corp.’s takeover of Maritime Life Assurance Co., part of a broader acquisition that will make Manulife North America’s second-biggest life insurer. Finance Minister Ralph Goodale said that the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions had approved the Maritime Life takeover and the Competition Bureau had raised no objections to the deal.

Overnight in Asia, Japan’s Nikkei shed 7.96 points to 11,944.30. In Hong Kong, the blue-chip Hang Seng Index dropped 167.07 points, or 1.35%, to 12,227.3.

North American markets racked up losses as early enthusiasm over earnings reports faded after comments by U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan brought interest rate concerns to the fore.

Greenspan told a Senate committee that the U.S. banking system should remain healthy, even in a climate where interest rates are rising. He will speak to Congress again Wednesday.

In Toronto, the S&P/TSX index lost 99.84 points to 8,602.98. The junior TSX Venture Exchange was down 27.22 at 1,773.57.

On Wall Street, The Dow Jones industrial average lost 123.35 points to 10,314.5. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index gave up 41.8 points to 1,978.63m while the broader S&P 500 declined 17.67 points to 1,118.15.

The Canadian dollar tumbled to its first close below the US73¢ level since September. The loonie fell US0.64¢ to US73.70¢.