U.S. stocks headed for a lower open Wednesday following weak quarterly results from FedEx and Morgan Stanley.

FedEx projected earnings below analyst expectations as it swung to a fiscal fourth-quarter loss on a write-down of its 2004 purchase of Kinko’s. The outlook shows the company continues to suffer under a soft U.S. economy and surging fuel costs.

Morgan Stanley released quarterly results that showed earnings fell 60%.

For the quarter ended May 31, the investment bank reported net income of US$1.03 billion, or 95¢ a share, down from US$2.58 billion, or US$2.45 a share, a year earlier.

Late Tuesday, New York-based futures broker MF Global warned that fiscal first-quarter revenue will come in below estimates and said it will sell US$150 million in preferred stock.

Here at home, the composite index rose 0.2% in May, following no change in April and declines in the previous two months.

Statistics Canada said May’s increase was widespread, with 7 of the 10 components expanding, the most since the turmoil began in global credit markets last August. One component was unchanged, while two declined.

The Canadian dollar opened at US98.00¢, down 0.32 cent from Tuesday’s close.

In today’s earnings news, ATS Automation Tooling Systems Inc. reported a quarterly profit of $7.9 million compared with a year-ago net loss of $80.5 million. January-March revenue was $186.5 million, up from $151.4 million a year earlier.

Light sweet crude oil was up 41¢ to US$134.42 a barrel, ahead of weekly U.S. government data on domestic inventories.

Overseas, with London’s FTSE losing 1.5% in early-afternoon trading, while the Frankfurt DAX slipped 0.7% and the Paris CAC-40 declined 1.2%.

In Asia, Shanghai’s benchmark index recovered 5.2%, and Hong Kong’s blue-chip Hang Seng climbed 1.2%.

The Japanese Nikkei 225 index gained 104.45 points, or 0.7%, to 14,452.82.

On Tuesday, the Toronto Stock Exchange’s benchmark index set a record high close, as resource shares climbed.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 124.55 points, or 0.83 %, at 15,068.83, surpassing the previous record high close of 15,047.34, set last month.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index added 1.96 points, or 0.07%, to finish at 2,683.03.

In New York, stocks fell after Goldman Sachs warned that U.S. banks would have to raise as much as US$65 billion in capital to shore up balance sheets weakened by the mortgage crisis.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 108.78 points, or 0.89%, at 12,160.30. The S&P 500 finished down 9.21 points, or 0.68%, at 1,350.93. The Nasdaq composite index ended the session down 17.05 points, or 0.69%, at 2,457.73.