Stocks look set to rise on the open today, as speculation builds that the U.S. Federal Reserve Board will cut interest rates to revive growth.

Yesterday U.S. stocks had another rough ride. The Dow Jones industrial dropped 269.5 points to close at 8,043.6. The S&P 500 slipped 29.6 points to 834.6. The Nasdaq composite index lost 41.9 points to finish at 1206.

Futures are now foretelling a strong rebound to start trading today, as rate cut talk builds. Some analysts see the Fed chopping another 50 basis points from U.S. rates. Stocks such as Intel Corp. and Juniper Networks Inc. look set to jump in response. The U.S. dollar is also up.

The only corporate news out today has been pretty supportive, too. Cardinal Health Inc. saw its profit up 17% in the last quarter. Omnicom Group Inc.’s profits jumped 24%.

In Europe, stocks are already up this morning, also on hopes that the Fed cuts rates and boosts the fortunes of stocks such as Siemens AG and DaimlerChrysler AG and BMW. The FTSE is up 11 points to 4,007. The CAC 40 has gained 66 points to 3,181. The DAX is strongest, up 128 points to 3,461.

Overnight in Asia, markets were weak once again. The Nikkei closed down 204 points to 9,501. The Hang Seng shed 162 points to 9,701.

In M&A news, Nestle SA is buying Chef America Inc. for US$2.6 billion.

On the local earnings scene, St. Lawrence Cement Group reported record net earnings of $36.2 million for the second quarter of 2002 compared to $21.4 million for the second quarter of 2001.

For its third quarter, Cognicase reported net earnings of $5.1 million, as compared to cash net earnings $2.5 million for the same period in fiscal 2001.