U.S. stock futures turned higher on Wednesday after two losing sessions on news of a merger in the battered U.S. construction sector.

Pulte Homes and Centex will combine in a US$1.3 billion stock-for-stock deal that would create the largest home builder in the United States.

Here at Canadian direct investment abroad rose by 24% in 2008, largely the result of the substantially weaker Canadian dollar’s effect on the value of foreign currency-denominated direct investment positions, Statistics Canada said today. The largest gains were on investments in the United States, which increased to $310.7 billion.

South of the border, minutes from the last U.S. Federal Reserve interest-rate setting meeting will be released in the afternoon, giving the market more information on the decision to buy US$300 billion of government bonds.

In M&A news, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Nokia Siemens Networks has offered to buy large pieces of the Nortel Networks, which is currently in court-ordered protection from creditors.

Movie theatre company Cineplex Entertainment said it has agreed to buy advertising broadcaster Onsite Media Network Inc. for $1.7 million.

In today’s earnings news, sporting goods retailer the Forzani Group Ltd. said its profits sank for both the fourth quarter and full year of fiscal 2009.

Profit at the company was $24.2 million, or 79¢ a share, for the quarter ended Feb. 1, compared with net income of $28.7 million, or 85¢ a share, in the year-earlier period, which was extended by a week and ended on Feb. 3, 2008.

In other corporate news, Canwest Global Communications Corp. reports it has reached a deal with some of its lenders to extend a waiver of certain borrowing conditions by another two weeks, until April 21.

In commodities news, benchmark crude for May delivery fell US$1.11 to US$48.05 a barrel by late afternoon in Singapore in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average fell 237.84 points, or 2.7%, to 8,595.01. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 454.11 points, or 3%, to 14,474.86

On Tuesday, the benchmark index of the Toronto Stocks Exchange posted a triple-digit loss Tuesday, led lower by heavyweight energy and financial issues.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 184.31 points, or 2.04%, at 8,831.86.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index slipped 10.69 points, or 1.1%, to finish at 952.48 points.

In New York, stocks fell on earnings jitters as aluminum producer prepared to kick of the Q1 earnings season,

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 186.29 points, or 2.34%, to 7,789.56. The S&P Index lost 19.93 points, or 2.39%, to 815.55. The Nasdaq Composite Index gave up 45.10 points, or 2.81%, at 1,561.61.

After the bell, Alcoa posted a US$497 million loss in the first quarter, compared with a profit of US$303 million a year earlier.

IE