North American stocks may open higher Wednesday amid optimism over Intel, Yahoo and International Business Machines earnings results, and positive U.S. economic data.

In today’s economic news, the U.S. Labor Department said the consumer price index decreased 0.5% in September, the biggest drop since November 2005. Excluding food and energy, the CPI advanced 0.2%, the third-straight monthly increase of that size. Economists called for a 0.3% decline in the CPI and a 0.2% increase in the core index.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Commerce Department said September housing starts increased by 5.9% to a seasonally adjusted 1.772 million annual rate. Wall Street expected a decline of 1.2% to a 1.645 million annual rate last month.

Here at home, Statistics Canada reported the composite leading index rose 0.4% in September, after an upward-revised gain of 0.3% in August.

After markets closed yesterday, Intel reported a 35% drop in third-quarter profit but showed signs of mending problems. Intel shares were up 1.4% in Frankfurt.

Yahoo also was up, rising more than 4% overseas after the company met expectations with a 20% sales rise.

IBM’s third-quarter net income rose 46% from a tax-charge-weakened level a year earlier, as sales rose 5.1%, reflecting growth in all major business lines. IBM shares climbed 3.7% in Germany.

J.P. Morgan Chase said net profit for the third-quarter rose 30% on record investment-banking fees, as the firm weathered a difficult interest-rate and market environment.

In other market news, Britain’s Rio Tinto is investing as much as $1.7 billion in Ivanhoe Mines of Vancouver to develop the Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold mining project in Mongolia’s South Gobi region.

The two companies will jointly engineer, construct and operate the project.

Under the agreement announced today, Rio Tinto could become the largest shareholder in Ivanhoe.


Crude-oil prices fell 25¢ to US$58.68 a barrel ahead of a weekly U.S. petroleum supply data, which is expected to show a decline in distillate stocks but a build of one million barrels in crude-oil inventories.

Overseas, European stock markets rose, with the FTSE 100 up 0.2% in London.

The Nikkei 225 rose 0.3% in Tokyo.

Toronto stocks close lower Tuesday as oil prices retreated, and a government report showed signs on inflation in U.S. wholesale prices.

Toronto’s S&P/TSX composite index closed down 64.91 points to 11,996.63, ending three-session winning streak.

The TSX Venture composite index slipped 9.09 points lower to 2,413.09.

The Canadian dollar closed 0.25 of a cent lower at US87.69¢. Before markets opened the Bank of Canada announced its was leaving its key overnight lending rate at 4.25%.

U.S. stocks fell on Tuesday after economic data renewed concerns about growth and inflation.

The major U.S. stock indexes snapped a three-session string of gains, causing the Dow Jones industrial average to backtrack from a bid to top 12,000.

The Dow Jones fell 30.58 points, or 0.26%, to end at 11,950.02. The S&P 500 was down 5.00 points, or 0.37%, at 1,364.05. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index was down 18.89 points, or 0.80%, at 2,344.95.