Wall Street stock futures fell Wednesday, on poor U.S. retail-sales data and concerns about the health of the banking system.

Here at home, trading in shares of telecom company Nortel Networks Corp. was halted amid reports the company could file for bankruptcy protection as early as this morning.

The banking sector is back in the spotlight after Deutsche Bank warned of a fourth-quarter loss of about US$6.33 billion.

Meanwhile, a Morgan Stanley note said HSBC may have to raise as much as US$30 billion and slice its dividend in half.

Late Tuesday, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup unveiled their plan for a brokerage joint venture, in which Citigroup will get US$2.7 billion and 49% control for swapping its Smith Barney unit.

In other corporate news Yahoo named computer industry veteran Carol Bartz to replace Jerry Yang as chief executive.

In today’s economic news, U.S. retail sales fell 2.7% in December, a sixth consecutive decline.

The Canadian dollar opened at 81.83¢ on Wednesday, up 0.18 of a cent from Tuesday’s close of 81.65.

Oil futures, buoyed by Saudi production cuts, rose US$1.26 to US$39.04 a barrel in electronic premarket trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Overseas, Asian stocks also closed higher overnight, with the Nikkei 225 edging up 0.3% in Tokyo.

In Europe, banking worrries hit stocks with the FTSE 100 losing 1.5%.

On Tuesday, Toronto stocks closed in positive territory on on strength among energy stocks and materials companies.

The S&P/TSX composite index finished the day up 168.22 points, or 1.9%, at 8,961.55.

The S&P/TSX Venture composite index failed to experience similar gains, dipping 9.45 points, or 1.1%, to close at 868.9.

Stocks south of the border were primarily ahead on Tuesday, having witnessed strength among energy and banking firms.

The Dow Jones industrial average, however, failed to hold on to gains. It fell 25.41 points, or 0.3%, to end at 8,448.56.

The S&P 500 index gained 1.53 points, or 0.2%, to end the day at 871.79.

The Nasdaq composite climbed 7.67 points, or 0.5%, to 1,546.46.

IE