North American stocks are likely to open lower Thursday as U.S. retailers report mixed January sales performance.

Retailers are posting mixed post-holiday sales results. Wal-Mart Stores had a higher-than-expected 2.2% rise in sales at stores open at least a year for the five-week period ended Friday, a five-month high. Costco Wholesale fell short of analysts’ estimates, posting a 2% increase in same-store sales.

In financial services news, global banking giant HSBC warned that bad debt provisions would be 20%, US$1.8 billion, higher than analysts had forecast for 2006, blaming a weak U.S. sub-prime lending market that the bank had aggressively entered.

In today’s economic news, the U.S. Labor Department said 311,000 workers filed new claims for state unemployment insurance benefits in the week ended Feb. 3, up from a revised 308,000 a week earlier.

Data on U.S. December wholesale inventories are also due.

There are no major economic releases from Statistics Canada today.

The Canadian dollar opened at US84.36¢, down 0.04 of a cent.

Crude-oil futures slipped 11¢ to US$57.64 a barrel.

In earnings news, Thomson boosted its annual dividend 11% Thursday after fourth-quarter profit rose 57% to US$390 million.

PepsiCo said that fourth-quarter profit rose 61% with a particularly strong performance from its international division.

Mazda Motor reported a 46% rise in net profit for the October-December period as higher car sales in the U.S. and Europe made up for sluggish sales in Japan.

The Nikkei 225 finished virtually flat in Tokyo trading.

Overseas, both the Bank of England and European Central Bank held interest rates steady.

The FTSE 100 slipped 0.2% in London.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 stock index inched up 0.16 of a point to 17,292.48.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index added 55.36 points, or 0.3%, to 20,735.05.

Toronto stocks ended their winning streak Wednesday, led by losses in resources shares.

The S&P/TSX composite index fell 41.08 points, or 0.3% to 13,142.25.

Overall, eight of the 10 TSX main groups were lower, led by a 1% fall in the energy sector

The information-technology sector was up 2.3%, with shares in Nortel ahead $2.83, or 9.2%, to $33.50 after the telecom equipment maker announced it is shedding 2,900 jobs over this year and next.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index edged 5.21 points lower to 2,985.41.

In New York, U.S. tech stocks rose, led by Cisco Systems, whose strong profits and outlook reinforced optimism over earnings.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index gained 19.01 points, 0.77%, to 2,490.5

The blue-chip Dow Jones industrials inched up 0.56 of a point to 12,666.87, and the S&P 500 index gained 2.02 points to 1,450.02.