Stocks look to open weaker this morning, led by the techs.

Ciena reported weak profits for its latest quarter and an analyst cut his forecast for Intel Corp., hurting tech sentiment.

On the economic front, U.S. initial jobless claims rose to 383,000 last week, but traders aren’t too worried about that statistic. It was also reported that the U.S. trade gap narrowed to US$25.3 billion in December. Weaker imports were the main reason, but this is modestly positive.

In Canada, it was reported that companies exported $32 billion in merchandise in December, down 1.2% from November. Merchandise imports declined 1.8% to $27.5 billion, their lowest since July 1999.

Also, retailers posted their third consecutive monthly gain in December; sales reached $25.0 billion, up 1.6% from November. Despite signs of an economic slowdown in 2001, retailers reported a 4.5% annual increase in sales from 2000.

In Europe, stocks are bouncing back today as bargain hunters are nibbling at blue chip names such as Vodafone Group plc, Alcatel SA and Vivendi Universal SA. The FTSE is up 36 points to 5,060. The CAC 40 has gained 33 points to 4,271. The DAX added 31 points to 4,811.

Overnight in Asia, stocks were much stronger. the Nikkei gained 461 points to 10,295. The Hang Seng added 40 points to 10,789.

In M&A news, Xstrata AG, a Swiss mining company, is buying Glencore International AG for US$2.5 billion.

In earnings news, Biovail Corporation reported net income increased 67% and was $73.8 million for the fourth quarter 2001 versus fourth quarter 2000 net income of $44.2 million. Net income for 2001 of $202.9 million increased 64% versus $124.0 million for the prior year equivalent period.

Slater Steel Inc. reported net earnings of $9.2 million for the year ended December 31. This compares to net earnings of $26.7 million in 2000. For the three months, net earnings were $1.5 million, versus $7.4 million.

Saputo Inc. revealed that net earnings were up 37.1% to $35.1 million in its latest quarter, from $25.6 million for the same period the year before.

MOSAID Technologies Inc. says its net loss for the year to date was $21,500,000, compared to net earnings of $4,827,000 for the same period of fiscal 2001.