North American stocks look set to tumble at Wednesday’s open amid disappointing earnings reports from Intel and Yahoo, another jump in oil prices, and a sharp slide on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

In Japan, the Tokyo Stock Exchange shut down trading during peak afternoon hours to keep a flood of sell orders from overwhelming the exchange’s antiquated computer systems. The Nikkei 225 stock index fell 464.77 points, nearly 3%, to close at 15,341.18 points – its biggest one-day drop since May 10, 2004. The index has fallen nearly 6% in the last two days.

Crude-oil prices were up 48¢ to US$66.79 on continuing concerns about Iran’s nuclear power program, and attacks on pipelines in Nigeria.

After markets closed Tuesday, both Intel and Yahoo released earnings that missed analyst expectations.

IBM also reported earnings and sales below expectations.

In today’s earnings news, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. reported a 62% increase in profit on strong investment banking fees.

The slump in Japan has carried over to most other major markets.

Shares in Europe were down sharply. Germany’s Xetra Dax lost 1.3% and the FTSE-100 fell 1% in London.

Overninght, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.6%.

In today’s economic news, the 12-month change in the Consumer Price Index edged up from 2% in November to 2.2% in December, Statistics Canada said today.

Separately, the government agency said Large declines in petroleum prices and continued volatility in the auto sector were the driving forces behind the 1.5% drop in manufacturing shipments ($51.4 billion) in November. New orders also decreased a sharp 1.8%, due to weakness in the transportation equipment sector.

South of the border, the U.S. Labor Department said consumer prices slid 0.1% in December, the second straight monthly decline, as costs for cars and gasoline fell. Prices excluding food and energy rose 0.2%.

The dip in consumer prices surprised Wall Street. The median estimate of economists was a 0.2% increase in the overall index during December and a 0.2% rise in the core.

On Tuesday, Toronto stocks ended lower Tuesday, as a poor day in technology stocks offset gains in the energy sector.

The S&P/TSX composite index fell 31.36, or 0.27%, to 11,689.61.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index finished down 2.28 points, or 0.10%, to 2,392.26.

In New York, higher oil prices, mixed corporate earnings and broker earnings downgrades weighed down the markets.

The Dow Jones composite index ended down 63.55 points at 10,896.32, the Nasdaq fell 14.35 points to 2,302.69, while the S&P 500 Index dropped 4.68 points to 1,282.93.