North American stocks are likely to open mixed as traders review the mixed signals in this morning’s report of U.S. economic data.

U.S. retail sales rose 0.7% last month, the Commerce Department reported. A 2.4% gain in motor vehicles and parts demand helped push up overall retail sales.

Economists had expected bigger increases of 1% and 0.3%, for overall retail sales and sales excluding autos, respectively.

However, June sales were revised to a 0.5% drop, a sharp improvement from the initial estimate of a 1.1% decline.

In a separate release, the U.S. Labor Department reported that import prices rose 0.2% in July after a 0.1% decline in June. The increase, which was lower than expected, mainly reflected rising energy prices.

Meanwhile, U.S. initial jobless claims fell by 4,000 last week to 333,000, marking the lowest level since the week of July 3, the Labor Department said. The four-week average declined for the first time in three weeks, falling by 4,250 claims to 339,250. Economists had expected claims to increase by 4,000.

There are no major economic data releases from Statistics Canada today.

In this morning’s earnings news, H-P reported lower-than-expected profit and issued a weak outlook, amid poor performance in its enterprise servers and storage unit.

Wal-Mart reported an 8.5% rise in second-quarter net income on an 11% increase in sales, as it sold more merchandise without the help of markdowns.

In banking news, two of Japan’s largest banks reached a basic agreement for a merger deal that would form the world’s biggest bank. No other details were immediately available.

Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group Inc. and UFJ Holdings Inc., will give details of the agreement later in the day. On Wednesday, the Tokyo High Court reversed a July 27 decision by the Tokyo District Court ordering a halt to the merger talks between Mitsubishi Tokyo and UFJ.


Tokyo shares declined on a selloff in technology issues after losses on Wall Street. The Nikkei lost 21.39 points, or 0.19%, to finish at 11,028.07.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index rose 70.3 points, or 0.6%, to 12,413.43.

On Wednesday, technology stocks led the way to a losing session on North American markets with investors in a selling mood as Cisco Systems fell short of expectations and anxiety continued over rising oil prices.

In Toronto, the S&P/TSX composite index fell 63.02 points to 8,168.24, as the information technology sector slid 4.5%.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index dipped 10.04 points to 1,470.97.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average edged 6.35 points lower to 9,938.32. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index fell 26.28 points to 1,782.42 while the S&P 500 was down 3.25 at 1,075.79.

Cisco reported a 41% profit jump Tuesday evening but its cautious outlook on corporate technology spending rattled investors, and several brokerage firms downgraded the stock. Cisco shares tumbled US$2.17 to US$18.29.