North American stocks are poised to open higher Wednesday after an optimistic earnings forecast from Texas Instruments.

After markets closed Tuesday, Texas Instruments raised its outlook for second-quarter profit and revenue, citing improving demand for its chips and calculators.

In economic news, the U.S. Commerce Department is due to release the wholesale trade report at 10:00 ET. Economists expect a 0.4% increase in wholesale inventories in April.

As well, the U.S. Energy Department will release its weekly data on U.S. crude and product supplies. Light, sweet crude for July delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange was down 48¢ to US$53.28 a barrel by midday in Europe.

The price of oil closed Tuesday at US$53.76 a barrel, down 73¢.

There are no major economic announcements from Statistics Canada today.

In other financial news, U.S. investment firm Third Avenue Management proposed buying Instinet Group’s institutional-brokerage unit for US$307 million, a move that could delay Nasdaq Stock Market’s plan to buy Instinet’s electronic-trading business.

In today’s earnings news, GMP Capital Corp. said its first-quarter profit more than doubled to a record $21.1 million.

On Tuesday, Toronto stocks finished flat. The S&P/TSX composite index gained 2.19, or 0.02%, to finish at 9,656.16.

The junior S&P/TSX venture exchange fell 21.60, or 1.29%, to close at 1,655.67.

In New York, markets closed mixed. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 16.04, or 0.15%, to finish at 10,483.07. The Nasdaq fell 8.60, or 0.41%, to finish at 2,067. The S&P 500 lost 0.25, or 0.02%, to close at 1,197.26.

General Motors Inc. announced it plans to cut 25,000 manufacturing jobs by 2008. The automaker’s stock gained 31¢ to finish at US$30.73.

Markets were also positively affected by a bullish statement from U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, who told a meeting of central bankers in Beijing that he expected the economy to remain strong.