North American stocks may head lower Friday morning, as investors consider news from software giants Microsoft and Oracle.

Microsoft announced Thursday that Chairman Bill Gates plans to give up his day-to-day role at the software giant to spend more time at his nonprofit foundation helping the world’s poor. Gates said he would remain Microsoft’s chairman, but begin a transition that in two years will remove him from overseeing product development at the company he co-founded in 1975.

Oracle announced preliminary earnings and revenue for the fiscal fourth quarter that were higher than expected as the software maker, which has been under scrutiny since an acquisition binge last year, posted strong growth across its businesses.

On the economic front, the U.S. Commerce Department said Friday the first-quarter U.S. current account deficit narrowed sharply to US$208.7 billion as overseas sales of industrial supplies and capital goods increased. The deficit was much smaller than Wall Street expectations of a gap of US $224 billion.

A report from the University of Michigan on consumer sentiment is due at 9:45 a.m. Eastern.

The Canadian dollar opened at US89.79¢, down 0.07 of a cent.

Crude oil prices climbed above US$70 a barrel Friday on mixed signals from Iran over a package of incentives offered by the West for it to give up uranium enrichment.

In today’s M&A news, GMP Capital Trust announced a deal to acquire private-equity firm EdgeStone Capital Partners LP for $62 million plus stock.

GMP said it expects the acquisition to boost its earnings in 2006. To finance part of the deal, GMP has secured $30 million in financing from a Canadian bank.

Nortel Networks announced a US$2 billion offering in senior unsecured notes to help it reorganize debt and settle some lawsuits. Nortel said it plans to use US$1.3 billion of the net proceeds to repay a one-year credit line arranged in February.

In overnight trading, the Japanese Nikkei 225 jumped 408.58 points, or 2.82%, to finish at 14,879.34 on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

In Hong Kong, the blue-chip Hang Seng Index rose 407.57 points, or 2.64%, to 15,842.65.

On Thursday, North American stocks rallied strong, erasing some part of the losses they’ve absorbed over the last five weeks, as investors rushed back into the market, buoyed by encouraging comments from U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke.

The S&P/TSX composite index shot up 252.48 points, or 2.30%, to 11,213.16.

The S&P/TSX Venture composite index zoomed ahead 135.72 points, or 5.62%, to 2,551.29.

In New York, markets continued to rebound from recent sell-offs, as all three major indexes enjoyed their biggest one-day gains since March 2003. The Fed chairman indicated in a speech that he felt higher energy prices were manageable in terms of their impact on the economy.

The Dow Jones industrials average rose 198.27 points to 11,015.19, its second triple-digit gain in two days.

The Nasdaq composite index rose 58.15 points to 2,144.14 and the S&P 500 gained 26.12 points to 1,256.16.