Wall Street futures are pointing to a slightly weak start for the day, despite big gains on the markets yesterday.

The U.S. Conference Board is set to release its March consumer confidence numbers at 10: 00 ET. Economists are looking for a reading of 86 for the month, slightly less than the 87.3 reading in February. Meanwhile, investors are staying cautious ahead of the U.S. jobs report on Friday.

Although there are no major economic releases from Statistics Canada this moring, today is budget day for several provinces including Quebec, New Brunswick, Newfoundland & Labrador, and PEI.

Quebec will be the headliner, however, in keeping with the trend toward stage fiscal restraint, begun by Ottawa last week, none of these budgets is expected to affect the markets.

In Europe markets are down at midday. London’s FTSE100 Share Index is flat at 4,408.10. In Paris, the CAC40 Index is down 16.51 points, or 0.5%, to 3,617.67. In Frankfurt, the Xetra DAX Index has dropped 18.84 points, or 0.5%, to 3,862.41.

In Asia the main markets finished mixed. Tokyo’s Nikkei slipped 24.56 points, or 0.21%, to close at 11,693.68. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index rose 214.05 points, or 1.72%, to 12,641.39.

The OPEC cartel is expected to defer a planned production cut of a million barrels a day. That news helped send North American markets higher Monday, with New York’s blue-chip index enjoying a triple-digit jump.

The Dow industrial average rose 116.66 points to 10,329.63, its second triple-digit advance in three sessions. The Nasdaq climbed 32.55 to 1,992.57, while the S&P 500 index moved ahead 14.41 points to 1,122.47.

Toronto’s S&P/TSX composite index rose 45.67 points to 8,555.23 on gains in the information technology and energy sectors.

Research In Motion gained $5 to $123 after Good Technology agreed to pay royalties under a licensing agreement that settles patent litigation.

Barrick Gold finished up 30¢ at $30.30, on rumours that Newmount Corp. is preparing a bid for the firm.

The TSX Venture Exchange lost 9.17 points to 1,854.69.

After the markets closed Monday, Nortel Networks postponed its April 29 annual shareholders meeting because of a previously announced delay filing of its 2003 financial statements. Nortel also said Export Development Canada has waived the right to terminate hundreds of millions of dollars in credit financing until late May.