North American stocks are poised to open lower Wednesday morning, pressured by a disappointing report on U.S. durable-goods orders and rising oil prices.

Earlier today, the U.S. Commerce Department said July orders for durable goods tumbled a seasonally adjusted 4.9% to US$204.71 billion after rising a downwardly revised 1.9% in June. Economists called for a 1% decline in July.

Meanwhile, crude-oil prices rose 63¢ to US$66.34 a barrel in early trading Wednesday, ahead of a key U.S. petroleum-inventories report that is likely to show a reduction in crude and gasoline stocks.

Also today, the U.S. Commerce Department is slated to release the new home sales report for July at 10:OO ET. Economists forecast a 3.1% decline in new home sales to an annual rate of 1,332,000 last month, after hitting the 1,374,000 level in the prior month.

There are no major economic releases from Statistics Canada today.

In today’s earnings news, Bombardier Inc. said its second-quarter profit soared to US$117 million, from a year-earlier US$23 million, after a big gain from selling some of the Bombardier Capital division’s operations. During the quarter, the firm completed the sale of Bombardier Capital’s inventory-finance operations and manufactured housing segment, resulting in an after-tax gain of US$103 million.

Transcontinental Inc., the parent company of Investment Executive, announced today that it is revising its objective for earnings per share before unusual items downward for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2005. Management said it expects that 2005 earnings per share will be 5% to 10% lower than the bottom of the range announced on December 15, 2004, which was $1.74.

On Tuesday, Toronto stocks closed lower, as both the financial and technology sectors weighed down the senior exchange. The S&P/TSX composite index finished down 45.46 points, or 0.43%, to 10,480.03.

The heavily weighted financials group dropped 0.96%.

In the first of this week’s bank earnings reports, Bank of Montreal reported its third-quarter profit declined 16% to $541 million. Cash earnings per share were $1.08, which came in 4¢ below analysts’ expectations. BMO Group shares declined $1.50, or 2.5%, to $58.50.

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce dropped $1.08, or 1.54%, to $69.09 as investors anticipated its earnings report, which will be released today.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index finished up 2.19 points, or 0.11%, to 1,922.26.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average shed 50.31 points, or 0.48%, to 10,519.58. The Nasdaq composite index fell 4.16 points, or 0.19%, to 2,137.25, while the S&P500 declined 4.14 points, or 0.34%, to 1,217.59

Sales of previously owned homes dropped 2.6% in July as mortgage rates crept up, setting investors on edge. But even with the decline, sales posted the third-highest level on record.