Wall Street stock futures were flat Thursday, as investors digested lower outlooks from Intel and Wal-Mart, and the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development forecast a 0.9% decline in U.S. activity next year.

Retail behemoth Wal-Mart reported a 10% rise in third-quarter profit that surpassed analyst expectations, but it wrote down its expectations for full-year earnings.

Intel also had bad news for the market after the close of trading Wednesday, cutting more than $1 billion from its sales forecast and providing further evidence that technology companies are in for a beating because of the economy.

In today’s economic news, the U.S. trade deficit shrank by 4.4% to $56.47 billion in September from August’s revised $59.08 billion, the U.S. Commerce Department said.

Meanwhile, U.S. weekly jobless claims rose to 516,000, exceeding estimates and reaching a seven-year high.

Here at home, Canada’s trade surplus with the world decreased to $4.5 billion in September from $5.6 billion in August, as exports declined and imports rose.

The Canadian dollar opened at US80.98¢, up 0.17 of a cent after falling 2.77¢ on Wednesday.

In other earnings news, Mega Brands Inc. reported a third-quarter net loss of US$122.1 million, pulled down by a US$150 million writedown of goodwill.

In commodities news, light sweet crude for December delivery edged up 79¢ to US$56.95, after drooping US$3.50 on Wednesday.

In other news, newspaper publisher and broadcaster Canwest announced Wednesday it was cutting f5%of its workforce across the country, or about 560 jobs, as part of its streamlining of operations in the face of an economic slowdown. The cuts are expected to reduce annual operating costs by about $61 million, the company said in a release.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei closed with a loss of 5.25% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 5.2%.

The FTSE 100 was down 1.1% early in the afternoon in London, while Germany’s DAX and the French CAC-40 showed slight gains.

Canadian stocks plunged again on Wednesday, pulled down by more erosion in the price of oil and other commodities.

The S&P/TSX composite index plummeted 501.43 points, or 5.3% to close at 8,922.57.

Junior companies on the S&P/TSX Venture composite index slipped 49.83 points, or 5.7% to end at 822.50.

In the United States, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s announcement of the next stage of the financial market rescue plan failed to foster market confidence.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 411.3 points, or 4.7% to end at 8,282.66. The S&P 500 index slid 46.65 points, or 5.2%, to end at 852.3. The Nasdaq composite index shed 81.69 points, or 5.2%, to close at 1,499.2.

IE