Stocks are pointing to a down open this morning, led by falling tech stocks. The techs are sliding this morning after Goldman, Sachs & Co. analyst Laura Conigliaro said Sun Microsystems Inc. and EMC Corp. may have trouble meeting earnings forecasts.

It didn’t help that Vodafone Group plc reported a loss of US$13.8 billion thanks primarily to US$191 billion in acquisitions in the quarter.

Canadian stocks will undoubtedly get a boost from Conoco Inc. buying Gulf Canada Resources Ltd. for US$6.3 billion in cash and assumed debt, almost $10 billion in loonies. Conoco and Gulf announced that their boards of directors have unanimously approved an acquisition agreement that will see a wholly owned Canadian subsidiary of Conoco acquire Gulf for $12.40 per ordinary share in cash, or $6.7 billion.

Conoco also will assume approximately $3.1 billion in debt, preferred stock and minority interests. The transaction price represents a 35% premium over Gulf Canada’s closing stock price on May 25. The deal is expected to be immediately accretive to Conoco’s earnings and is expected to close in the third quarter.

On the economic front, U.S. personal spending was reported 0.4% higher in April, as incomes rose 0.3%, their slowest growth pace in five months.

In Canada, manufacturers’ prices, as measured by the Industrial Product Price Index, grew 2.7% from April 2000 to April 2001, up from 2.4% in March. The annual increase in the IPPI had been slowing down since December. Rising petroleum and coal product prices accounted for about one-quarter of the annual increase in the IPPI in April. If the impact of petroleum and coal product prices were excluded, the IPPI would have increased 2.0% instead of 2.7%.

At the same time, manufacturers paid 7.9% more for their raw materials in April than they did in April 2000, a significant increase from the year-over-year gain of 1.2% in March. Mineral fuels drove the rise in the RMPI in April. If they were excluded, the RMPI would have advanced 2.6% in April on a year-over-year basis.

In Europe, stocks are sliding led by the techs and telecoms. Vodafone is leading the way down, along with Deutsche Telekom AG and British Telecommunications plc. The FTSE has dropped 32 points to 5,857. The CAC 40 is down 37 ticks to 5,569. The DAX has shed 55 points to 6,162.

There’s a big paper deal in Europe too, with UPM-Kymmene Oyj, Europe’s second- biggest paper company, buying G. Haindl’sche Papierfabriken KGaA of Germany for US$3.3 billion in stock, cash and assumed debt.

Overnight in Asia, stocks were modestly mixed. The Nikkei gained 36 points to finish at 13,774. The Hang Seng dropped 110 points to 13,630.

In other news, familiar name Mitel Corp. is disappearing, although the company will remain with a new global identity, Zarlink Semiconductor.