Stocks are looking weaker at the open today, after a flurry of earnings news, dominated by some poor results at some big names. Intel is notably weaker today, leading the techs down, after it reported weaker sales for the quarter and cut its spending. Novellus also says it sees lower sales.

Among the broader market, Coca-Cola is leading the way down after it said that its profit might miss forecasts. JP Morgan Chase reported that its profit fell 91% last quarter due to bad loans.

Not all the news is grim however. Ford Motor Co. saw its third-quarter net losses narrow to US$326 million. Merrill Lynch & Co.’s profit rose last quarter and Pfizer Inc. reported its third-quarter profits rose 13%.

European stocks are down already, led by weakness in names such as Intel, Reuters Group plc and European chip stocks. The FTSE is down 73 points to 4,057. The CAC 40 lost 20 points to 3,066 and the DAX is down 32 points to 3,016.

Overnight in Asia, stocks managed to close with gains once again. The Nikkei added 48 points to 8,885. The Hang Seng gained 123 points to 9,459.

In M&A news, Vodafone Group plc is bidding US$13 billion for the 85% share of Cegetel it doesn’t already own.

In local earnings news, Alcan Inc. reported its unofficial third quarter earnings per share at US$0.47 per share compared to US$0.37 per share last year at this time. Third quarter GAAP net income was US$0.59 per share compared to US$0.46 per share in the third quarter of 2001 and US$0.22 per share in the second quarter of 2002. Rogers Communications recorded a loss of $99.8 million for the quarter compared to a loss of $90.4 million in the same quarter of 2001. Rogers Wireless had a $14.1 million loss alone.

Labopharm’s net loss for the second quarter of fiscal 2003 was $3.5 million, compared to $2.1 million for the same period last year.

Acetex Corporation announced earnings of US$2.5 million for the last quarter.