By James Langton

(May 30 – 09:00 ET) – Stocks are set for a weak opening this morning, led by techs. Techs are pointing down after Sun Microsystems Inc. and RadioShack Corp. issued earnings warnings.

Names such as Cisco Systems Inc. and JDS Uniphase Corp. are down in the pre-market, too. Lucent Technologies Inc. is weak after it called off talks with French rival Alcatel SA yesterday.

On the economic front, there’s no big news, but Statistics Canada reported that average weekly earnings for all employees were up in March by $2.25 to $662.75. Year-over-year average weekly earnings increased 2.1%, up slightly from the 2.0% growth rates of January and February.

However, year-over-year earnings gains are still below the average growth rate of 2.3% seen in the last three months of 2000. Gains in March were predominantly in goods-producing industries. On a year-over-year basis, earnings gains in goods-producing industries were only 0.8%, but in service-producing industries they were much stronger, up 2.7%.

In Europe, stocks are down led by the techs, but also steel makers such as ThyssenKrupp AG, and other old economy firms are reporting weak results. The FTSE is down 53 points to 5,811. The CAC 40 has lost 72 points to 5,469. The DAX is down by 61 points to 6,059.

Stocks slid heavily overnight in Asia, following U.S. worries. The Nikkei lost 281 points to 13,493. The Hang Seng shed 210 points to 13,420.

There’s lots of M&A news now that Alcatel-Lucent is dead. Medtronic Inc. is buying MiniMed Inc. and Medical Research Group Inc. for a combined US$3.7 billion.

Tyco International Ltd. is buying C.R. Bard Inc. for about US$3.2 billion.

Legg Mason Inc. is buying out fund manager Private Capital Management LP for US$1.38 billion in cash.

Cognicase Inc. is buying privately owned RADIUS Information Systems of Toronto, a company that specializes in the integration of information technology solutions in the financial sector. No price was disclosed.

Alcan Inc. has announced the sale of a number of foil container manufacturing assets in Spain and Germany to satisfy part of the divestment requirements imposed by the European Commission as a condition to its approval of the merger between Alcan and Alusuisse Group Ltd in October 2000. No price was disclosed.

Finally, in earnings news, Cognos Inc is warning. It announced reduced expectations for the first quarter of fiscal year 2002, which will close on May 31. It expects revenue for the quarter to be in the range of $106 million to $110 million, compared with revenue of $108.7 million for the same period last year. Net results are expected to be between breakeven and a net loss of $4.0 million.

Cognos also announced measures directed at reducing expenses, these include a workforce reduction of approximately 300 people, or about 10% of its global staff, and reduced discretionary spending.