North American stocks look headed for gains at the opening bell Wednesday, helped by a smaller U.S. trade deficit, strong earnings results from Cisco Systems and a decline in oil prices.

Earlier today, the U.S. Commerce Department said the U.S. trade deficit narrowed to US$54.99 billion from a revised US$60.57 billion in February, making the sharpest decline in three years. The March trade shortfall was much smaller than Wall Street economists’ median forecast for a deficit of US$61.5 billion.

Here at home, Statistics Canada said Statistics Canada said the country’s merchandise trade surplus with the world edged up $80 million in March from $4.2 billion in February. The agency says imports stayed flat, and exports were dampened by declines in automotive products and industrial goods and materials.

In earnings news, Cisco reported stronger-than-expected fiscal third-quarter results after regular trading hours Tuesday and reaffirmed its forecast for continued strong growth in the current quarter.

Meanwhile, crude-oil prices fell 59 cents to US$51.48 a barrel in early trading Wednesday.


On Tuesday, North American markets were mired in red ink with technology and gold stocks leading the way lower in Toronto and U.S. markets pre-occupied with a rise in crude oil prices above US$52 a barrel and talk of possible large losses at a hedge fund.

At close, the Toronto Stock Exchange S&P/TSX composite was down 67.61 points or 0.71% to 9,493.59, while the junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index slid 11.45 points or 0.67% to 1,686.02.

On Wall Street, the blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average suffered a triple-digit loss, falling 103.23 or 0.99% lower at 10,281.11. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite fell 16.90 points or 0.85% at 1,962.77, while the S&P 500 index was off 12.62 points or 1.07% at 1,166.22.

On Wall Street, U.S. investors were spooked over the jump in oil prices. But they also may have been reacting to rumours that a couple of hedge funds could be in difficulty because of over-exposure to General Motors Corp. debt, downgraded last week to junk status.

Shares of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co and Citigroup Inc. fell, along with those of other Wall Street firms, after Germany’s Deutsche Bank declined 3% following market talk of investment banking losses, possibly in connection with a hedge fund.

J.P. Morgan Chase lost 2.28% to US$35.14 and was the biggest percentage decliner in the blue-chip Dow average, while Citigroup, another Dow component, was down 1% at US$46.38.