Stocks are pointing to a positive open this morning, as bargain hunters continue to hunt.

Stocks such as General Motors, Intel and Cisco Systems are up in premarket trading.

Major indices may not advance, however, as some traders may be unwilling to hold gains over the weekend in this climate of political and military uncertainty.

There’s lots of economic news out today. The U.S. GDP grew at 0.3% in the second quarter, revised up from 0.2%. This is better than economists expected. They had forecast a downward revision to 0.1%, but this news hardly erases recession expectations. Also, the net trade deficit was revised to $406.7 billion from $410.5 billion.

In Canada, GDP slipped 0.1% in July, after declining 0.2% in June. Weakness was concentrated in manufacturing, with reduced output of electronic and wood products leading the way. Mining and oil and gas extraction were up and the service sector remained unchanged.

Manufacturers’ prices, as measured by the Industrial Product Price Index, grew 0.9% from August 2000 to August 2001 after a similar year-over-year gain of 0.9% in July.

Petroleum and coal product prices declined 5.0% in August compared with August 2000. If petroleum and coal product prices were excluded, the IPPI would have gone up 1.3% instead of 0.9%.

Mineral fuels were responsible for close to half of the decline in the Raw Materials Price Index in August, along with decreases for wood products and non-ferrous metals. If mineral fuels were excluded, the RMPI would have declined 2.8% in August on a year-over-year basis instead of falling 4.5%.

In Europe, stocks are up this morning as bargain hunting rules the day there, too. The FTSE is up 72 points to 4,835. The CAC 40 has gained 59 points to 4,072. The DAX is up 95 points to 4,280.

Stocks also finished the week higher in Asia, as the Bank of Japan continued selling the yen. Companies such as Sony and NEC are cutting forecasts, but this is hardly surprising analysts. The Nikkei added 78 points to 9775. The Hang Seng gained 350 points to 9951.

In other news, Schneider Electric SA is dropping on fear that European Union regulators may block its US$6.4 billion purchase of Legrand SA.

Best Buy will extend its takeover bid for all common shares of Future Shop because the transaction has not yet been cleared by Canadian regulators. The takeover bid will expire at on October 31.