North American stocks are likely to open lower Tuesday after tech bellwether Texas Instruments reduced earnings expectations.

The chip maker cutting the top end of its second-quarter earnings-per-share outlook by a penny, citing lower-than-forecast sales of calculators and mobile infrastructure.

In today’s economic news, labour productivity in Canadian businesses jumped 0.7% in the first quarter, Statistics Canada reported.

That’s more than three times the pace in the previous three months and its best performance in more than a year. At the same time, unit labour costs, a key measure of inflationary pressures on wages, slowed substantially.

The Canadian dollar opened down 0.10 of a cent at US94.19¢.

In M&A news, Rogers Media is buying the five Citytv television stations CTVglobemedia Inc. has been ordered by the CRTC to sell in a deal valued at $375 million in cash.

In earnings news, Lehman Brothers kicked off Wall Street investment banking reporting season, reporting a 25% gain in second-quarter revenue and a 27% jump in profit.

Major Drilling Group International reported its biggest-ever quarter with revenue up 45% from a year earlier to $129 million. Net earnings rose to $17.8 million, or 77¢ per share.

Saskatchewan Wheat Pool said strong agri-products sales helped produce a quarterly profit of $9.3 million, up from a year-ago loss of $8.3 million.

Crude-oil futures fell 20¢ to US$65.77 a barrel.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei index lost 73.57 points to 17,760.91 at the close, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 20.90 to 20,636.39.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 was off 17 points at 6,550.5 early in the afternoon in London, while the Paris CAC-40 declined 0.5% and the German DAX was down 0.6%.

Toronto stocks ended moderately higher Monday, despite a volatile session, as gains in the material sector led the broader market in an ultimately positive session.

The S&P/TSX composite index moved up 34.32 points, or 0.25%, to 13,832.82.

The S&P/TSX Venture composite index edged ahead 3.14 points, or 0.10%, to 3,193.69.

In New York, markets ended little changed after a volatile day of trading as investors remained cautious in light of fears of a rising interest rates environment.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended essentially flat, inching ahead 0.57 of a point to 13,424.96, the Nasdaq composite index fell 1.39, or 0.05%, to 2,572.15 and the S&P5 00 advanced 1.45 of a point, or 0.10%, to 1,509.12.