North American stocks are poised to decline at Friday’s open amid continuing concerns about elevated bond yields.

Bonds prices rose, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note falling to 5.197% from 5.20% late Thursday. The 30-year Treasury note’s yield fell to 5.318%.

In M&A news, amid talk of a merger between Telus and Bell Canada parent BCE, investment banker Catalyst Asset Management is proposing to preserve Bell as a stand-alone public company and boost payouts to shareholders with securities that exceed the current annual dividend.

In financial market news, the Blackstone Group will begin trading today on the New York Stock Exchange. Blackstone has priced its initial public offering at US$31 a share, the top end of its indicated range. Blackstone raised as much as US$4.6 billion last night after 133.33 million common units were sold into the offering, making it one of the biggest IPOs on Wall Street.

A proposed bill out of the U.S. Senate to tax limited partnerships at a higher rate didn’t appear to quell investor appetite.

Markets also will be looking at a shake-up of the S&P 500 index. Outgoing components will be PMC Sierra, ADC Telecom and Sanmina-SCI. Tyco spinoffs Tyco Electronics and Covidien and Morgan Stanley spinoff Discover Financial Services are scheduled to join the S&P 500.

Crude-oil futures were down 7¢ to US$68.58 a barrel on Friday.

In today’s economic news, Canada’s ational net worth reached $5.3 trillion by the end of the first quarter, or $159,900 per capita, Statistics Canada reported.

National net worth expanded by $134 billion, or 2.6%, in the first quarter, a pace just under that of the two previous quarters, the government agency said.

The Canadian dollar opened at US93.3, up 0.25 of a cent.

Overseas, Markets declined in Asia and Europe, with the Shanghai Composite losing more than 3% amid fears of an imminent rate increase. The FTSE 100 declined 0.2% in London.



Toronto stocks rallied Thursday, despite falling energy and resource prices, as investors continued to show optimism with the market.

The S&P/TSX composite index gained 117.57, or 0.84%, to 14,095.73, rebounding from Wednesday’s 146-point loss.

Nine of the 10 TSX main sub-groups were up.

The S&P/TSX Venture composite index gained 16.97 points, or 0.52%, to 3,251.36.

In New York, markets moved up on lower energy prices and despite continued concerns over rising long-term bond yields.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 56.42, or 0.42%, to 13,545.84, the Nasdaq moved up 17, or 0.65%, to 2,616.96, and the S&P500 advanced 9.35, or 0.62%, to 1,522.19.