Traders remain cautious about stocks Wednesday amid continuing negative corporate news.

At midday, the S&P/TSX index is down 26 points to 7,634.

Volume is very heavy at 133.9 million shares. The down volume is swamping the up volume by about 19:7. Market breadth is also negative, with losers outnumbering winners by 11 to eight.

Techs and telecoms are weak today after Nortel Networks announced still more job cuts and a far off turnaround for its business.

Energy stocks are lower, as are golds, health care, materials and consumer stocks. Financials, diversifieds and materials are up.

Gold stocks are seeing lots of trading action today. The gold price jumped smartly, up US$5 in London to more than US$325 per ounce, but the stocks are moving down after Goldman Sachs downgraded the sector saying that the price jump is unsustainable. The big producers are getting hit hardest. Barrick is down more than 3% on the news, and Placer Dome has dropped more than 1%.

Eldorado Gold and Wheaton Minerals and Miramar Mining are sliding too. But there is strength in smaller miners such as Golden Star Resources, Echo Bay Mines, Teck, Aur Resources, Inmet Mining, Pan American Silver and Corner Bay Silver.

Techs are weaker today on Nortel’s latest bad news. Research in Motion and Ballard Power are down. BCE is down another 1% in heavy trading action, too.

Other losers include Westaim, Nexfor, Telus, Duke Energy and TD Bank.

The banks are generally higher however, led by better than 1% gains in Royal Bank, Bank of Montreal and Sun Life. Also, Manulife Financial is up 0.5% on news that it will acquire up to 20% of brokerage firm Canaccord Capital.

Other gainers include odd bedfellows, Royal Laser Tech and Masonite International Co.

In New York, stocks opened lower on the Nortel news and negative corporate news at a few other firms, too, but they are moving off those lows at lunch time. The Dow Jones industrial average is down five points to 9.976. The S&P 500 is down two points to 1,073. The Nasdaq composite index sits 16 points lower at 1,636.

The S&P/TSX Venture index continues to march to its own tune today, heading nine points higher to 1,235. Volume is very heavy at 36.1 million shares, about double a normal day.

Caussa Capital is leading the way, up 2¢ to 4¢ on 2.3 million shares. But there are a few multi-million share movers out there today, boosting the volume.