By James Langton

(January 30 – 09:30 ET) – Stocks look to open mixed this morning. There’s no major economic data out today on either side of the border, although the two-day U.S. Federal Open Market Committee meeting starts today. A decision on interest rates is expected tomorrow afternoon.

In the meantime, equity markets have generally been weak. Mobile phone giant Nokia Oyj reported first-quarter profit will stagnate for the first time in five years. Although the company came in on targets, it is cutting its forecasts. This is hitting the telecom stocks in general.

Markets are mixed in Europe on the news. The FTSE is up 14 points to 6,331. The CAC 40 is off 16 points to 5,904. The DAX is down 18 points to 6,733.

In M&A news, Canadian National Railway is announcing a merger with Wisconsin Central Transportation Corp., under which CN will acquire all of the common stock of WCTC for cash valued at US$17.15 per WCTC share.

WCTC is a transportation holding company with a North American railroad system of approximately 2,850 miles of track and trackage rights in Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and Ontario. The deal is worth US$1.2 billion, including US$400 million of WCTC debt.

In other business news, Certicom and Lucent Technologies Inc. today announced an alliance to jointly develop secure solutions for Lucent’s mobile Internet offerings worldwide. The development effort will focus on end-to-end solutions that provide superior user authentication and security to enable safe and secure transactions between the growing base of mobile Internet devices and the Internet.

Stocks were down in Asia overnight on weakness in blue chip stocks. The Hang Seng fell 207 points to 15,893. In Japan, the Nikkei dropped just 19 points to 13,826.

Skyjack Inc. today announced its unaudited quarterly financial results for the third quarter of fiscal 2001, ended December 31, reporting a net loss of 9¢, up from 61¢ last year.