By Jeff Sanford

(December 14 – 18:00 ET) – Thank goodness for Nortel. Without it’s advance, today’s closing numbers for the TSE 300 would be much lower. As it is, the TSE 300 threw off early gains to drop 28.74 points and close at 9,069.38.

However, that modest decline obscures heavy selling across the market. Overall nine of the 14 sub-indices finished lower today.

The biggest loss was in consumer products, which fell 6.58%. Helping out on the downside was the 2.98% loss in conglomerates, a 2.35% loss in financial services, 2.17% loss in merchandising and a 2.81% loss in metals and minerals.

On the upside, the industrial sub-index traded above it’s open throughout the day. It closed up 2.50%. Pipelines also finished the day higher, with a 1.40% gain.

Among individual issues, declining issues outpaced advancing issues 652 to 450. Total volume was a robust 170 million shares.

Nortel was the most heavily traded issue today with nearly 11 million share changing hand. The networking giant gained 6.03% to close at $58.90. Earlier in the day Nortel issued a statement confirming it would meet the market’s earnings estimates for the fourth quarter.

Some financial stocks were literally slaughtered today. TD Bank lost 4.74% to close at $40.20, Bank of Nova Scotia dropped 3.70% to $40.30, CIBC fell 5.33% to $43.55, BMO slid 3.37% at $73.15, and National Bank dipped 3.19% at $25.80.

Insurers fared better today. Industrial Alliance soared 7.97% to $39.95.

Other big names among today’s losers included Stelco, down 5.85% to $3.38, Abitibi off 4.26% to $12.35 and Canadian Pacific falling 4.96% to $40.25.

Beyond, Nortel, most of the other techs were down. 369Networks plunged 9.04%, Itemus Inc., plummeted 7.14% to 65¢, Mitel slid 6.98% to $14.65 and JDS Uniphase slipped 5.75% $94.25.

QLT is responsible for much of the drop in the consumer products sector. It announced Thursday that sales of its anti-blindness therapy Visudyne would come in below estimates. The stock was promptly dumped following the announcement and QLT closed down 32.34% at $41.95.

Also succumbing to antsy investors and ugly earnings, was United Dominion. It announced it had halted discussions with a possible buyer and then warned of a fourth quarter earnings shortfall. Investors drop kicked the stock down 31.13% to $18.25.

The CDNX was down 24.25 points today to 2,879.73. Volume on the small-cap exchange was 44 million shares, with 336 issues declining and 264 advancing.

The loonie continued to appreciate today, climbing another 0.32% to close at US65.97¢.

In the New York, markets sold off on earnings worries as well. The mood was overwhelmingly negative.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 119.45 points to 10,674.99. The NASDAQ composite fell 94.26 to 2728.51. That’s a 3.34% drop. The S&P 500 was off 19.06 points at 1,340.93.