Stocks are pointing to a slight decline on the open this morning, as fears of a recession in the U.S. are building.

There’s some big M&A news, EchoStar Communications Corp. is stepping into the breech to buy General Motors Corp.’s Hughes Electronics unit for about US$31.5 billion, after News Corp. dropped its bid for the top U.S. satellite-TV service.

Also, giant pension fund, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, and Reef America LLC of Chicago are buying Cabot Industrial Trust for US$2.1 billion.

Also today, crude oil prices are up more than 2% after the Saudi oil minister indicated that OPEC will cut production for a fourth time this year.

In economic news, Statistics Canada reported the annual rate of growth in industrial product prices was the same in September as in August. Raw materials prices continued to decline compared with September 2000, their fourth consecutive month of negative growth. The Industrial Product Price Index grew 0.6% in September compared with September 2000. Petroleum and coal product prices fell 9.6% in September compared with September 2000. If petroleum and coal product prices were excluded, the IPPI would have risen 1.5% instead of 0.6%.

Also, manufacturers paid 9.8% less for their raw materials in September than they did in September 2000. Mineral fuels were responsible for more than half of the decline in the Raw Materials Price Index in September, along with non-ferrous metals and wood products. If mineral fuels were excluded, the RMPI would have declined 3.9% on a year-over-year basis instead of falling 9.8%.

In a separate release, Statscan reported that average weekly earnings for all employees rose $2.73 to $668.52 in August. On a year-over-year basis, average weekly earnings were up 1.8%, short of the 2.8% year-over-year growth in the consumer price index in August. In August, the number of employees on payrolls rose a slight 8,700, or 0.1%.

In Europe, stocks are generally selling off today. Banks are leading the way down after Santander Central Hispano SA cut its full-year profit forecast because of credit quality issues. The FTSE is down 62 points to 5126. The CAC 40 has shed 54 points to 4425. The DAX has dropped 87 ticks to 4733.

Overnight in Asia, stocks were particularly weak after the Bank of Japan said its industrial production is down and it warned that Japan may be headed for an extended two-year recession. The Nikkei dropped 183 points to 10612. The Hang Seng shed 227 points to 10178.

In earnings news, Emco Limited says net earnings for the quarter were $8.2 million, up from earnings of $1.9 million for the third quarter of 2000.

Biovail Corporation reported that its net income, excluding charges, increased 37% and was $55.8 million for the third quarter 2001 versus third quarter 2000 net income of $40.7 million.