Trading is very subdued today, ahead of tomorrow’s decision on interest rates in the United States.

At midday, the TSE 300 is down 60 points to 6,779.

Only 47 million shares have crossed the tape, about half the volume we’ve seen recently. Selling volume is outpacing the buying two to one, and losers outnumber winners nine to seven.

The selling is broad-based, as profit worries nag traders and some of last week’s gains are grudgingly surrendered.

Each of the TSE’s 14 groups is down at midday, led by techs, consumer stocks, conglomerates, energy plays and transports. Financials are down across the board.

The only strength among sub-sectors is in odd little niches such as food processors, transportation equipment and gas utilities.

Bombardier is leading the rebound in transportation equipment, up 1% in heavy volume. But most of the big traders are heading down. Nortel Networks is leading the tech stocks down, it is joined by Celestica, BCE Emergis, Pivotal, Micrologix and Research in Motion. CAE and Air Canada are quite weak again too.

Old school stocks are very soft, too, with heavy selling in Canadian Hunter, Pan Canadian, and financials such as Royal Bank, Sun Life and Bank of Montreal. Weak global demand for these products and services appears to be behind their trouble

On the upside, AT&T is bouncing. And there are odd rebounds in names such as Cognicase, Cott, QLT, Teck, Noranda, Maple Leaf Foods, Atco and Intrawest.

In New York, trading is much the same. Volume is very light, compared to recent days, and it is mostly negative. The Dow Jones industrial average is off 81 points to 8,767. The Nasdaq composite index has shed 34 points to 1,465. The S&P has dropped 10 points to 1,031.

The CDNX is down today, too, although it has lost just three points to 2,836. Volume has been on the light side at 12 million shares.

Techs are leading the weakness, overcoming some minor strength in both oils and miners. Cantex Mine Development continues to lead trading, up another 67% to 10¢ on more than 1.1 million shares.