The latest round of earnings results has stocks looking at a slide on the open Tuesday. The bad news comes from an earnings warning out of chipmaker Texas Instruments, which is also hitting other chip stocks such as Intel.

Pharmacia Corp. recorded a third-quarter loss. AT&T Corp. saw its earnings decline, too. On the upside, UPS saw its third quarter profit rise almost 2%. And, Gillette Co. saw its earnings increase 20%.

The market got off to a bad start in Europe today, too, led down by energy companies. They are falling following weakness in the price of crude oil, due to easing tensions between the U.S. and Iraq. Stocks such as Royal Dutch Shell and BP plc are leading the way down. And, there is weakness in ABB Ltd., Europe’s largest electrical-engineering company, after it walked away from its 2002 earnings forecast.

The FTSE is down 18 points to 4,116. The CAC 40 has dropped 24 points to 3,132, amid news that French consumer spending fell more than expected last month. Also, the DAX dropped 65 points to 3,218.

Overnight in Asia, stocks were weaker there too. The Nikkei dropped 289 points to 8,689. And, the Hang Seng gave up 21 points to 9,549.

In Canada the market will also be absorbing CIBC’s news of job cuts and various charges, which were announced after the bell last night.

Also, Stelco Inc. reported net earnings of $19 million in third quarter 2002 compared with a loss of $19 million in third quarter 2001. Included in third quarter 2002 earnings is a net gain of $9 million due to the permanent shutdown of a blast furnace.

Abitibi-Consolidated Inc. reported third quarter net earnings were $77 million, versus a loss of $83 million in the same quarter of 2001. Included in the current quarter’s results is a $304 million net gain from the sale of the Saint-Félicien market pulp mill, a favourable income tax adjustment of $25 million, offset by a foreign exchange loss mainly from US-denominated debt of $192 million and an after-tax charge of $7 million associated with debt reimbursement.

BCE Inc. announced that it has initiated a public offering of debt securities today to raise approximately $1.5 billion. TD Securities Inc. will act as lead manager and book-runner and Merrill Lynch Canada Inc. will act as co lead-manager. The net proceeds resulting from this offering will be used to pay part of the acquisition price of SBC Communications Inc.’s indirect minority interest in Bell Canada.

AEterna Laboratories Inc. reported a net loss of $6.6 million, compared to a net loss of $5 million for the same period in 2001.

Xenos reports that revenue for the fiscal year was approximately $14.2 million, up 14% from the previous year’s revenue of $12.4 million. Revenue for the final quarter of fiscal 2002 was $4.3 million, up 39% from $3.1 million in the comparable quarter last year and 12% from $3.8 million in the third quarter.