Stocks look ready to slide on the open today, after a selloff in the U.S. yesterday, weakness in Europe, and a flat to down futures market. Techs are leading the way down with accounting worries gripping traders. Firms such as Xerox, AOL and EDS are all weak.

Stocks had a rough day yesterday, led by WorldCom. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 134 points to 9,110. The S&P 500 closed down 21 points to 968. Nasdaq surrendered 59 points to 1,404.

Today the big culprit in Europe is Vivendi Universal SA. Management woes and accounting worries are hitting that stock. Also, European business and consumer confidence were both reported down. In London, the FTSE is down 86 points to 4,600. In Paris, the CAC 40 is down 120 points to 3,777. The German DAX has dropped 105 ticks to 4,262.

Overnight in Asia stocks were mixed. The Japanese Nikkei gained 27 points to 10,622. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng lost 107 points to 10,492.

In M&A news, Canadian Natural Resources has closed its acquisition of Rio Alto Exploration Ltd. Rio Alto shareholders elected to receive more than the $850 million in cash that was available. So those that elected to receive cash will get $14.6965 in cash and 0.0652 shares of Canadian Natural.

Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. has acquired a network of 16 convenience stores in the Indianapolis area from Handy Andy Food Stores Inc.

Zi Corp. announced that it has signed a letter of intent to sell all of its interest in its Hong Kong based telecom technology unit, also known as Zi Services, to an OTC Bulletin Board traded company.

In earnings news, Cogeco reported that its net income for the third quarter of 2002, amounted to $3.7 million, compared to net income of $4.9 million in 2001. the firm also reports that revenue and operating income before depreciation and amortization of Cogeco Cable were over stated by $2.3 million in the third quarter of fiscal year 2001, as a result of difficulties encountered with the interface between an updated version of the billing system and the accounting software.