Bad news from the boardroom, this morning, is sending futures lower and setting up the markets for a weak start.

Techs are leading the way down after phone giant Ericsson AB announced it will post a loss for 2001, cut 20% of its employees, and attempt to raise US$2.9 billion. Lucent Technologies Inc. is cutting another 6,000 jobs, saying that its sales were down 40%, last quarter. Names such as JDS Uniphase, Motorola and Ciena are being hit by all of this telecom turmoil.

In Europe, all of the tough news from the telecoms is hurting stocks. Added to that is the news that right wing extremist, Jean-Marie Le Pen, beat socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin in the first round of the French presidential vote. The Paris CAC 40 has dropped 69 points to 4537. The FTSE is down 24 points to 5219. And, the tech-heavy DAX is down 93 points to 5192.

Overnight in Asia, stocks were mixed. The Nikkei gained 210 points to 11722. The Hang Seng is down 113 points to 11139.

In M&A news, electricity firm National Grid Group plc is buying natural gas supplier Lattice Group plc for about US$18 billion. And, Micron Technology Inc. is buying most of Hynix Semiconductor Inc.’s businesses for US$4 billion in cash and stock.

IPSCO Inc. announced a net loss for the quarter was $3.4 million, a significant improvement over the $15.5 million loss reported last quarter, but off considerably from the net income of $5.7 million reported in the first quarter 2001.