North American stocks were poised to open flat Wednesday as Morgan Stanley announced a US$5.7 billion writedown.

Investment bank Morgan Stanley unveiled a new US$5.7 billion write-down on its way to posting a fourth-quarter loss. Morgan also said China’s sovereign wealth fund had invested US$5 billion in the company, furthering a trend of Asian and Middle Eastern investors taking large stakes in Western financial companies.

Bear Stearns will post its latest quarterly results Thursday.

Nike and Oracle Systems will announce quarterly results after the close of trade today.

In today’s economic news, Canadian wholesalers shrugged off a lacklustre October in the automotive sector to register a second straight monthly increase.

Statistics Canada reported that building materials and personal and household goods drove a 0.5% rise in wholesale sales in October to $43.9 billion.

The Canadian dollar opened at US99.35¢ this morning, down one-10th of a cent from Tuesday’s close.

Light sweet crude oil rose 12¢ to US$90.20 a barrel in premarket trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average fell 1.17% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 1.11%.

In London, the FTSE 100 dipped 0.14%, Germany’s DAX index slid 0.34% and France’s CAC-40 decreased 0.11%.

The Toronto stock market finished little changed on Tuesday as drops in financial shares helped offset gains in resource issues.

The S&P/TSX composite index finished down 29.04 points, or 0.22% to close at 13,358.07.

Seven of the 10 TSX main groups moved lower.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index fell 12.67 points, or 0.48%, to 2,595.28.

In New York, the U.S. Federal Reserve’s new rules to protect homebuyers made for a strong day on Wall Street.

The Dow Jones industrial average advanced 65.27 points, or 0.50%, to 13,232.47. The S&P 500 gained 9.08 points, or 0.63%, to close at 1,454.98.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index jumped 21.57 points, or 0.84%, to 2,596.03.