North American stock markets are looking to open higher Wednesday as earnings season kicks off on Wall Street.

Investors are awaiting a host of earnings reports that are due to begin rolling out Wednesday, including Alcoa, Yahoo and Genentech.

Accenture said its third-quarter net income rose about 59%, amid strong growth across all of its business lines, helped by the economic recovery in many parts of the world.

Meanwhile, PeopleSoft announced that its second-quarter earnings will fall short for expectations, saying that the adverse effect of the hostile tender offer by Oracle has been “substantial.”

In this morning’s economic news, Statistics Canada reported that the value of building permits retreated 9.5% in May to $4.1 billion as construction intentions declined in both residential and non-residential sectors.

After an exceptional month in April, the level recorded in May was the lowest in the past nine months, StatsCan said.

There are no major U.S. economic readings scheduled for release Wednesday.

In Tuesday’s business news, shareholders rejected the proposed merger of Wheaton River Minerals Ltd. and Iamgold Corp. Shareholders of Iamgold voted down the offer to combine with Wheaton River to form Canada’s third-largest gold producer, despite urgings from management and boards of both companies to support the deal.

The two firms had repeatedly rejected rival bids from Golden Star Resources Ltd. and Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp., which have renewed hopes that their hostile offers will be accepted.

Also Tuesday, Federal Finance Minister Ralph Goodale said that the minority Liberal government will press ahead with new bank merger guidelines. The move comes as a surprises as most observers had predicted that a minority government would shy away from the controversial issue.

Goodale also announced that Ottawa’s multibillion-dollar sale of shares in Petro-Canada is proceeding as planned.

Asian markets closed mixed overnight. Japan’s Nikkei fell 90.41 points, or 0.79%, o finish at 11,384.86.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong shares extended their rally to a third successive session. The Hang Seng climbed 36.18 points to 12,320.26.

On Tuesday, the he S&P/TSX composite slipped 1.26 points to 8,484.74. The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index fell 14.25 points 1,561.90.

On Wall Street, the major averages and indices closed at their lowest levels in a month. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 63.49 points to 10,219.34, its lowest close since June 3. The S&P 500 dropped 9.19 points to 1,116.19, its lowest close since May 26. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index shed 43.23 points, or 2.15%, to 1,963.43, its lowest closed ince June 3.