Global indicators were mostly negative for North American stock markets early Wednesday as a wave of quarterly earnings reports rolled in.

First-quarter earnings at IBM Corp. rose 8% and matched Wall Street expectations Tuesday, as a boost from software acquisitions helped overcome moderate overall growth.

After markets closed yesterday, Intel Corp. reported that its first-quarter profit surged 19%, elped by its rapid shift to a new chip-making process and a big tax windfall.

Yahoo reported an 11% drop in first-quarter profit as its revenue growth rate continued a steady decline.

In this morning’s earnings news, J.P. Morgan posted a 55% surge in net income amid record results at its investment-bank, asset-management and commercial-banking operations. Bank of New York’s net increased 2.8%.

In other business news, a massive system failure blocked BlackBerry e-mail for about eight million users in the Western Hemisphere overnight.

In economic news, Canadians continued to invest heavily in foreign securities, buying $6.2 billion worth in February, almost equally split between bonds, stocks and money market paper, Statistics Canada reported today.

Meanwhile, non-residents acquired $4.8 billion worth of Canadian securities, reversing the sell-off in January, with almost all the investment in Canadian equities.

The Canadian dollar opened at US88.39¢ US, down 0.08 of a cent.


Oil prices slipped and key European indexes dropped in early action.

Oil prices declined despite expectations that weekly U.S. petroleum inventory figures will show the 10th straight weekly decline in U.S. gasoline stocks, Light sweet crude for May delivery fell 51¢ to US$62.59 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange by noon in Europe.

Asian markets ended mixed as Japanese shares rebounded, but shares in Hong Kong dipped.

In Tokyo, the benchmark Nikkei 225 index rose 139.88 points, or 0.8%, to finish at 17,667.33 points.

In Hong Kong, the blue-chip Hang Seng index fell 11.52 points, or 0.1%, to 20,777.09.

Toronto stocks snapped a three-day winning streak to end marginally lower on Tuesday, as a drop in energy and materials issues offset strength in BCE.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 2.03 points, or 0.01%, at 13,657.95, after hitting a record high of 13,711.95 earlier in the day.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index gave back 14.87 points to 3,334.86.

The Canadian dollar rose 0.06 of a cent to US88.47¢.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average ended just short of a new record high, helped by better-than-expected profits at companies such as Johnson & Johnson and data showing tamer inflation.

The Dow rose 52.58 points, or 0.41%, to end at 12,773.04. The S&P 500 added 3.01 points, or 0.20%, to finish at 1,471.48.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index slipped 1.38 points, or 0.05%, to 2,516.95.