U.S. stock futures are modestly positive Tuesday after yesterday’s sharp declines in North American equity markets. Here at home, Canadian investors are digesting news of the passing of Ted Rogers and plans by Manulife Financial Corp. to issue $2.125 billion in common equity.

Manulife said it expects to record a loss of $1.5 billion for the fourth quarter. The insurer also said will further strengthen its financial and capital position by issuing $2.125 billion in common equity.

In other business news, communications industry pioneer Ted Rogers, the founder of Rogers Communications Inc. and one of Canada’s richest men, has died at his home in Toronto. He was 75.

There are no major economic releases from Statistics Canada today.

The Canadian dollar opened at US80.24¢, off 0.07 cent after declining half a cent yesterday.

South of the border, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. announced plans to lay off about 21% of Washington Mutual’s employees by the end of 2009 as it weaves the thrift’s operations into its retail-banking network.

Sears Holdings swung to a fiscal third-quarter loss and pulled its full-year earnings forecast.

In today’s commodity news, the near-month contract for crude oil was up 43¢ at US$49.71. Crude tumbled US$5.15 yesterday to US$49.28 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Overseas, Tokyo’s Nikkei index closed down 6.4% and the Hong Kong Hang Seng fell 5%.

However, European trading was positive. The FTSE 100 index was up 1.3% early in the afternoon in London, while the German DAX was up 2.4% and the French CAC-40 advanced 1.25%.

On Monday, the Toronto Stock Exchange kicked off the month of December with a sharp plunge of more than 9%, erasing a large chunk of the gains made in last week’s trading.

All 10 main groups on the TSX moved lower, pulling the S&P/TSX composite index down 864.41 points, or 9.32%, to 8,406.21.

The S&P/TSX Venture composite index shed 27.23 points, or 3.55% to end at 739.12.

Stock markets south of the border didn’t fare any better as
a late-day sell-off sent all three main indexes down sharply in the last hour of trading.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 679.95 points, or 7.7% to close at 8,149.09.

The Nasdaq composite finished the day at 1,398.07, down 137.5 points or 9%, and the S&P 500 moved down by 80.03 points, or 8.9%, to end at 816.2.

IE