Stocks are looking to open mixed today, with techs a bit weaker, but strength showing in much of the rest of the market.

The only economic news out today is U.S. initial jobless claims, which dropped another 28,000 to 379,000 last week.

The real story is earnings. Tobacco giant Philip Morris Cos. saw its profit climb 14% last quarter. IBM and Siebel Systems are weighing on the tech group, after some weak earnings at those firms. EMC Corp. reported a break-even quarter.

Eli Lilly & Co. has warned that its production may be facing regulatory delays. However, DaimlerChrysler AG has boosted its profit forecast for 2002.

In Europe, stocks are mostly up, led by DaimlerChrysler, but there’s also strength in Electrolux AB and luxury goods maker, LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, after they also forecast higher earnings. The FTSE is up 63 points to 4,253. The CAC 40 has gained 59 points to 3,500. The DAX is up just four points to 4,097.

Overnight in Asia, stocks were generally higher. The Nikkei gained 202 points to 10,498. The Hang Seng added 117 points to 10,453.

In M&A news, Canada Bread Co. has purchased the Olafson’s Baking Company Inc. of Delta, BC.

TD Bank Financial Group announced that TD Securities will significantly reduce the size of its corporate lending portfolio, and reduce the capital associated with this portfolio by one-third over three years.

TD will take a $600 million sectoral loan loss provision against potential problems in its performing corporate telecommunication loan portfolio. It will also take a sectoral U.S. corporate provision of $250 million to address concerns in certain performing loans in its U.S. portfolio.

The bank also announced that it expects to take the full $1.3 billion of the loan loss provision guidance it provided in April 2002 and that it will take $400 million of these provisions in the third quarter of 2002. This guidance and will bring the company’s expected loan loss total for 2002 to $2.15 billion.

In earnings news, Rogers Communications Inc. reported a quarterly loss of $188.8 million, down from $53.3 million in the same quarter last year. Rogers Wireless Communications Inc. announced a profit of $733,000, up from a $26 million loss in the quarter last year.