Stocks are poised to open flat Thursday as traders digest the latest batch of earnings reports and economic news.

Citigroup reported today that its second-quarter profit tumbled 73%, as the bank booked a US$4.95 billion charge to deal with legal troubles. The financial-services giant reported early Thursday net income of US$1.14 billion, or US22¢ a share. Revenue rose 15% to US$22.3 billion.

In other U.S. banking news, Wachovia Corp. reported a 21% gain in net income, crediting “outstanding” growth in deposits and strong fee income.

In this morning’s economic news, U.S. wholesale prices fell 0.3% in June, the biggest decline in a year, as energy and food costs retreated, the U.S. Labor Department reported today. The unexpected over-the-month drop in the producer price index comes after wholesale costs shot up in the prior two months. Wholesale prices rose by 0.7% in April and by 0.8% in May.

The latest reading on the PPI surprised economists, who were forecasting a 0.2% rise in wholesale prices in June.

Meanwhile, U.S. initial jobless claims jumped last week by a seasonally adjusted 40,000 to 349,000, the Labor Department said. In the prior week, claims plunged by 40,000.

Here at home, Statistics Canada said that manufacturers chalked up their sixth consecutive increase in shipments, rising 1.1% to $49.1 billion in May. Meanwhile, the level of new orders slipped 0.8%, the first decline in six months.

In its Monthly Survey of Manufacturing, StatsCan noted that shipments increased in 13 of the 21 manufacturing industries in May, representing 60% of total shipments. Non-durable goods industries jumped by 2.6% to $21.2 billion, boosted by the price-inflated petroleum industry. Durable goods manufacturing was essentially unchanged at $27.9 billion.

In a separate release, StatsCan said the number of new motor vehicles sold in May retreated 3.2%, primarily as a result of a drop in demand for trucks. This was the first decline in sales this year, following the significant declines that have prevailed through the last half of 2003.

Asian markets closed higher overnight. Tokyo’s Nikkei added 52.49 points to 11,409.14, while in Hong Kong the Hang Seng rose 6.58 points to finish at 11,939.41.

U.S. stocks fell Wednesday as tech-stock selling, sparked by Intel Corp.’s disappointing forecast, spread across markets during the final trading hours. Gains in resource stocks helped Canadian markets fend off the Intel scare.

The S&P/TSX composite Index added 5.68 points to 8,458.28. The TSX Venture composite index edged up 0.89 of a point to 1,560.34.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 38.79 points to 10,208.8, while the S&P 500 dropped 3.67 points to 1,111.47. Facing the brunt of tech-stock selling, the Nasdaq composite suffered a loss of 16.78 points to close at 1,914.88.

U.S. markets were also hurt by a report that consumer spending in the U.S. slowed last month. Bad weather and high energy prices, says the U.S. commerce department, contributed to a drop of 1.1% — the largest contraction since February 2003.

After markets closed Wednesday, Apple Computer posted stronger-than-expected third-quarter profit and revenues on heavy sales of its computers and portable music players.