By James Langton

(January 10 – 09:00 ET) – Premarket trading is foretelling a down open for stocks this morning, with tech profits the ongoing concern.

Both Motorola Inc. and Yahoo! Inc. announce fourth-quarter earnings today, and their stocks are falling in anticipation of poor results. CIBC World Markets has downgraded tech bellwether Cisco Systems Inc., too.

There are no major economic releases out today. Wholesale inventories in the United States for November are out at 10:00 ET, but there’s not huge interest in that number.

Boston Federal Reserve Bank president Cathy Minehan is speaking on the economic outlook this morning. Although she is expected to downplay recession talk, no one has the clout of Fed president Alan Greenspan on these matters. Minehan’s speech likely won’t have much influence over markets.

In Europe this morning, tech stocks are driving markets lower. Nokia Oyj, STMicroelectronics NV and Royal Philips Electronics NV are leading the way south. The FTSE is off 16 points to 6,072. The CAC 40 is down 28 points to 5,635. The DAX has slipped hardest, down 72 points to 6,332.

In the worst-kept secret in M&A category, American Airlines has finally admitted its plan to buy Trans World Airlines Inc., some of the assets of U.S. Airways Group Inc. and half of DC Air for a total of US$5.1 billion in cash and assumed leases.

In credit news, California governor Gray Davis has received pledges of co-operation from the state’s largest power providers to prevent the state’s major utilities from going bankrupt.

Overnight in Asia, traders joined the selling parade. In Japan, the Nikkei finished the day down 178 points to 13,433. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng slid just 65 points to 15,436.