It may be holding up better than U.S. markets, but the TSE 300 is down 94 points to 7,588 at midday.

Volume remains light in this holiday-shortened week, with just 63 million shares traded. Volume favours sellers over buyers better than two to one. Losers hold a five to three edge on winners.

On a sector basis, most everything is down. Only three groups are up and they are the safety sectors of gold, real estate and transportation.

Tech stocks are taking beating again today after another round of earnings warnings and disappointments. Techs are down about 5.25% today, shaving 3% from the industrials sub-index. Energy and consumer stocks are down notably, too, and financials are feeling the resulting heat.

Nortel Networks is leading the way lower, dropping almost 6% on 5 million shares. It is joined by similar slides in Celestica, JDS Uniphase, Alcatel, 724 Solutions, Pivotal and Teknion. The weak profit picture is plainly behind the trouble in these stocks.

Poor jobless reports on both sides of the border are also helping hit the rest of the sectors, although their slides are far more modest. Other prominent losers include Magna International, BCE and Thomson. Bank of Nova Scotia is leading the banks lower, too.

The upside is a mixed bag of stocks, including Calpine Canada, Telesystem International Wireless, Inex Pharmaceuticals, Pacifica Paper, Richelieu Hardware, Slater Steel and Great-West Life. But there’s not much news supporting these moves.

In New York, the markets are taking a far gloomier stance on the economic and profit pictures. At midday, the Dow Jones industrial for average has given up 227 points to sit at 10,252. The Nasdaq composite index is taking it on the chin, cruising down toward 2,000, off 70 points to 2,009. The S&P 500 is down 27 points to 1,192.

The CDNX is not escaping either. It is down 10 ticks to 3,182. Volume remains weak at just 11.3 million shares.

Techs are leading the way lower, followed by oils. Mines are flat. Genoil Inc is the top trader again, down 10.5% to 34¢ on 882,200 shares.