North American stocks look poised to open higher Thursday after Rio Tinto’s $38.1 billion offer for Alcan and a profit warning from Motorola.

Anglo-Australian metals giant Rio Tinto agreed to purchase Alcan for US$101 a share, or about US$38.1 billion, in an effort to help the Canadian aluminum giant stave off a hostile US$27.94 billion bid from U.S. rival Alcoa

After markets closed Wednesday, Motorola warned of weaker-than-expected cellphone shipments and said its mobile-devices unit will post a loss for the full year, as the telecommunications-equipment maker continues to struggle to revive its handset business.

U.S. retailers are posting modest June sales results, with department stores showing weakness and apparel sellers expected to have flat sales. Among the casualties is Macy’s, which posted weaker-than-projected sales and cut its fiscal second-quarter earnings outlook. Conversely, Wal-Mart Stores beat its modest outlook.

In today’s economic news, Canadian merchandise imports and exports declined in May for the second consecutive month after both reached record levels in March.

The nation’s trade balance with the world remained relatively unchanged at $5.9 billion, as imports and exports fell by nearly the same value, Statistics Canada said.

Separately, StatsCan reported that new housing prices in Canada increased at their slowest pace in just over a year in May, continuing a trend in deceleration that started in September 2006.

Contractors’ selling prices in May were 8.6% higher than they were in May 2006. This increase was slightly slower than the 8.9% year-over-year gain recorded in April.

The Canadian dollar opened at 95.08¢, up 0.19 of a cent.

South of the border, the U.S. trade deficit widened as expected in May, as stronger overseas growth and a weaker dollar boosted exports to a record and higher oil prices helped lift imports to an all-time high.

The May trade gap totalled US$60 billion, matching the mid-point estimate of Wall Street analysts surveyed before the report. It widened 2.3% from a revised deficit of US$58.7 billion for April, the U.S. Commerce Department said today.

In earnings news, biotechnology company Genentech reported a 41% profit rise and raised its earnings outlook.

Crude-oil futures rose 65¢ to US$73.21 a barrel. Gold futures rose $2.30 to US$664.40 an ounce.

Overseas, the Bank of Japan didn’t give clues as to whether the central bank may raise rates after it kept rates at 0.5%.

The Nikkei 225 dropped 0.4% in Tokyo, its third straight loss. The FTSE 100 rose 0.1% in London despite weakness from Rio Tinto.

Toronto stocks moved higher Wednesday, as trading in Alcan boosted the broader market.

The S&P/TSX composite index gained 34.16 points, or 0.24%, to 14,166.09.

Alcan Inc. rose $4.20, or 4.66%, to $94.40 ahead of the takeover bid from Rio Tinto.

The junior S&P/TSX venture composite index gained 20.46, or 0.63%, to 3,268.75.

In New York, markets rebounded from yesterday’s big losses as investors hoped that strong quarterly earnings would overshadow continuing fallout from the sub-prime mortgage meltdown.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 76.17 points, or 0.56%, to 13,577.87, the Nasdaq composite index rose 12.63, or 0.48%, to 2,651.79, and the S&P 500 lifted 8.64, or 0.57%, to 1,518.76.