The stock market may open lower today amid growing worries about retail sales slowing following the release of figures from the U.S. Commerce Department that may heighten worries about consumer spending for the holiday season. Investors also will be keeping a close eye on earnings from two banks that have recently gobbled up smaller rivals hurt by the financial crisis JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) and Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC). eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) also reports results.

Here is a look at other news that may move the market:

• Now, the bank bailouts are reaching outside the U.S. Bloomberg News reports that "The European Central Bank, Bank of England and Swiss National Bank loaned financial institutions a combined $254 billion in their first tenders of unlimited dollar funds, stepping up efforts to ease strains in markets." Meanwhile, Iceland is struggling with how to fix its collapsing banking system. Banks in the U.K. are helping because tens of thousands of British depositors have their money there.
• Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) yesterday reported earnings rose rose 12 percent in the third quarter, beating analysts' estimates though sales rose an anemic 1 percent. Chief Executive Paul Otellini is quoted by the Associated Press as saying that it's "hard to know" what impact the financial crisis will have on the fourth quarter but that he expects Intel to "outpace peer companies."
• Executive pay probably won't be hurt by the $700 billion Wall Street rescue package, according to the New York Times.
• October auto sales are likely to be as awful as September's, the Times said
• The Federal Budget Deficit hit a whopping $455 billion in the fiscal year ended September 30, Bloomberg reported.

Cisco's (NASDAQ: CSCO) numbers were OK. The company reported net income of $2.1 billion, or 33 cents per share, compared with $1.9 billion, or 31 cents, for the same period a year earlier. But the forecast was soft by Wall Street standards, and shares fell 8% after hours.

Over at big tech out-sourcing company EDS (NYSE: EDS), earnings fell 13% to 36 cents a shares, according to MarketWatch.

The message to the markets was clear. Both in enterprise tech consulting and enterprise tech sales the road ahead is filled with pot holes. The first half of 2008 is a period when a slowing economy is going to swallow up almost the entire technology sector. After that, no one knows.

There was some optimism on Wall Street that tech might escape a downturn because large corporations would not cut capital expenditures on large projects in their advanced data centers. Telecoms and cable companies would not slow build-outs of routers to improve their broadband capacity.

All of that thinking was a victory of hope over reason. Big tech is in for trouble.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) Chief Executive Jerry Yang today promised good things to patient investors. Wall Street, though, wanted more immediate gratification from the fourth-quarter results and sent shares slumping in after-hours trading.

"While we will continue to face headwinds this year, we believe that the moves we are making will help us exit 2008 stronger and more competitive and return to higher levels of operating cash flow growth in 2009," said Yang, who replaced Terry Semel last year, in the earnings release.

As Brian White discussed in his earnings preview, analysts had been expecting to see another disastrous quarter for Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) and this morning's earnings figures confirmed those expectations. The cell phone maker reported that its fourth-quarter profit plunged 84%, hurt by weak wireless phones sales and a deep loss in its handset division.

Net profit sank to $100 million, or 4 cents per share, down from $623 million, or 25 cents, a year earlier. Net profit from continuing operations was 5 cents. Included in the company's numbers were charges of 9 cents related to asset write-downs, layoffs and a legal settlement.

Excluding one-time items, Motorola would have earned 14 cents, a penny above analysts' expectations.

Motorola also posted a decline in its quarterly sales which slipped to $9.65 billion from $11.79 billion a year earlier. Analysts forecast a revenue of $9.6 billion for the quarter, according to Thomson Financial.

International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) outperformed earnings expectations in the fourth quarter, allaying analysts' concerns of a potential tech slowdown at least for now.

Before the market open, Big Blue said it would earn $2.80 per share, 20 cents better than analysts' expectations. IBM shares, down about 10% since the start of the year, rose $7.85 to $105.52 in early trading. Other tech stocks including Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) traded higher on the news.

Is the hoopla premature? Fears of a recession are quite real. Moreover, IBM Isn't like most tech companies. For one thing, the vast majority of its profits come from corporations and not individual consumers, and it also gets a huge amount of its revenue from outside the U.S. During the third quarter, revenue in the Americas rose 4% (3% adjusting for currency) to $10.2 billion while Europe/Middle East/Africa sales jumped 11% (4% when currencies are excluded) to $8.1 billion, and Asia-Pacific increased 9% (6% at constant currencies) to $4.9 billion.

The fourth quarter was more of the same. IBM's strength came from Asia, Europe and emerging markets, according to Chief Executive Sam Palmisano. The weak dollar may be giving IBM a huge boost as companies outside the U.S. may more inclined than domestic firms to buy IBM's hardware, software and services because they are pretty reasonably priced. Perhaps other tech companies such as Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) and Hewlett Packard Co. (NASDAQ: HPQ) will see similar benefits.

Tech stocks have been a basket case in the early days of 2008. In the next few days, investors will see whether IBM was a fluke or a hint of things to come.

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) today reported outstanding third quarter results that handily beat Wall Street expectations.

Net income was $4.29 billion, or 45 cents a share, compared with $3.48 billion, or 35 cents, a year earlier, Sales surged 27 percent to $13.8 billion. Analysts had expected profit of 39 cents and sales of $12.57 billion, according to Thomson Financial. Shares soared over 9% in after-market trading.

Of course, the world's largest software maker, which until now was in Wall Street's dog house, couldn't have been more pleased. "This fiscal year is off to an outstanding start with the fastest revenue growth of any first quarter since 1999," said CFO Chris Liddell, in the earnings release. "Operating income growth of over 30% also reflects our ability to translate revenue into profits while making strategic investments for the future."

So does this mean that Wall Street is now going to get off Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's back about the billions the company is spending to catch up to Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG)? Not very likely. One quarter does not make a trend even with its recent deal with Facebook.

But there is plenty for investors to like in the quarter. Vista sales seemed strong and the company hasn't been aggressively cutting xBox prices which has helped profitability, RCM Capital Management's Walter Price told Bloomberg News.

There is one perplexing side to the strong tech results this earnings side. If consumers are so worried about the future, how come they are willing to buy things like the Xbox, Vista and Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone. Aren't they worried about housing, energy costs and life in general? Maybe they are so focused on their tech toys that they don't care about the rest of the world. Who knows.

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In a pleasant surprise on an otherwise gloomy day, Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) and IBM (NYSE: IBM) today reported better-than-expected third-quarter results. Even Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) managed to beat Wall Street's already low expectations.

Is tech back? I think it's too early to tell. One quarter does not make a trend, but the earnings certainly gave hopes to bulls.

Yahoo! reported net profit of $151 million, or 11 cents per share. Gross revenue rose 12% to $1.77 billion. Excluding payments to partners, revenue was $1.2 billion. The results beat Wall Street consensus estimates of 8 cents. Shares of the internet portal rose in after-hours trading. My earlier skepticism about Yahoo remains.

More good news came from Intel . Net income rose 43% to $1.86 billion, or 31 cents per share, from $1.30 billion, or 22 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue soared 15% to $10.9 billion. These results beat consensus forecasts of 30 cents on revenue of $8.74 billion. Intel Chief Executive Paul Otelini said he expects results to improve in the fourth quarter: "We are very pleased with the results and optimistic about our business." Shares of Intel soared in after-market action.