By James Langton

(April 26 – 09:00 ET) – Statistics Canada reports that retail trade slipped 1.1% in February to $22.3 billion. All sectors except food stores were down.

International securities transactions were also reported, showing that foreign investors continue to add to their holdings of Canadian equities, although they dumped a bigger volume of fixed income. Canadian investors continued to make significant investments in foreign securities, especially stocks.

This morning markets are up across Europe. Techs are leading the way after street-beating earnings were reported by eBay and Nortel Networks. London’s FTSE has added 46 points to 6328. France’s CAC 40 is up 132 points to 6452. Germany’s DAX has added 155 points to 7435.

In Asia stocks were down. A reshuffling of the Nikkei hurt that index, the Nikkei closed down 138 points to 18134. In Hong Kong tensions between China and Taiwan cowed traders who shaved 153 points from the market to close at 15227.