Investors will likely vent their frustration with Nortel Networks when markets open Thursday. The company warned today that its third-quarter revenue will be lower than the second-quarter total while full-year growth is expected to trail the industry.

In today’s economic news, U.S. consumer prices rose 0.1% in August as health-care costs moderated and energy prices declined for the second straight month.

The increase reversed a 0.1% decline in July, the Labor Department said today. The core index — which excludes volatile food and energy items — also rose 0.1%, matching the pace in July.

Economists surveyed by had called for a 0.2% gain in the overall index and a 0.2% increase in the core index.

In a separate release, the Labor Department said initial jobless claims rose by 16,000 last week. That reversed about a third of the decline recorded in the previous week. But the four-week average, which smoothes out weekly fluctuations, was stable at 338,000.

North of the border, foreign investors increased their holdings of Canadian securities by $3.7 billion in July, Statistics Canada said today. Nearly all of the increase occurred in Canadian bonds because of a surge in net new issues.

Meanwhile, after divesting their holdings of foreign securities in June, StatsCan said Canadians resumed investing in foreign securities by purchasing $587 million worth in July.

Overnight in Asia, markets closed mixed. Japan’s Nikkei declined 19.22 points, or 0.17%, to 11,139.36.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index advanced 125.44 points, or 0.96%, to 13,209.84.

Bay Street stocks gave a mixed performance Wednesday with gains in energy and mining shares propping up weak performance among technology and banking issues.

The S&P/TSX composite index fell 25.56 points to 8,467.03 on a volume of 275 million shares.

Technology shares slipped 2.2% following a profit warning from Celestica. Investors sold off shares in Celestica, a day after the company issued a profit and revenue warning for its third quarter.

Shares of the electronic components maker were off 13%, falling $2.47 to $16.32.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index was up 8.15 points at 1,525.78.

In New York, stocks fell after a profit warning from Coca-Cola Co. stoked fears about corporate profits and a downgrade of the technology sector by investment bank Goldman Sachs weighed on markets.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 86.80 points, or 0.84%, at 10,231.36. The S&P 500 was down 7.96 points, or 0.71%, at 1,120.37.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index finished down 18.88 points, or 0.99%, at 1,896.52.

The Nasdaq slipped below 1,900, after Goldman Sachs cut its view on the software and hardware sectors, citing a survey that showed a slowdown in technology spending in 2004 and 2005.