Any hope that Wednesday afternoon’s rally would be carried through today has been thoroughly trounced.

Markets are selling off as the damage totals in New York grow, and traders admit that with conflict looming there is simply no certainty in the market.

At midday, the TSE 300 is down 146 points to 6551. Volume is strong today at 99.6 million shares, and deeply negative.

Volume favours sellers about 16 to three. Market breadth is extremely weak too, with losers outnumbering winners by 14 to five. New lows are outpacing new highs 17 to one.

Golds are up today on a flight to safety trade, and utilities are gaining too. Every other sub-index is posting a loss.

Mines are down 3.5%, as are conglomerates. Financials have dropped about 3%. Everything is down on overwhelming uncertainty of what’s ahead.

Big losers today include Bombardier, down 4%, after some cautious gains yesterday. CP is leading the conglomerates down, as is Nortel Networks among the techs. Nova Chemicals, Zarlink, Trican Well Services, CP Rail, Cara and Sherritt are all down.

The big banks are losing ground today, with Royal Bank down almost 5%, followed by heavy slides in Bank of Montreal, CIBC and Scotia. TD Bank is holding up best, down just 2%. Kingsway is leading the insurers down.

BCE is the sole source of blue chip strength, up 2%. Placer Dome is leading the gold stocks higher, with help from Barrick.

But there are also gains in firms such as JDS Uniphase, which was upgraded today. Ballard Power, Labopharm, Angiotech, Research in Motion and are up. Canadian Hunter and Saputo are posting gains, too

In business news, the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool is cutting up to 150 jobs in its head office and its primary grain handling operations. The net savings in fiscal 2002, after severance costs, will be approximately $2 million and will rise to $5 million annually in future years. Employees affected will be provided with severance and transition counseling.

Finning International has filed for a normal course issuer bid to buyback 10% of its shares.

In New York, markets opened weak and have headed down all day as Fed chair Alan Greenspan admitted to Congress that the economy will be hurt by last week’s attack and there can be no certainty about when it will recover.

At midday, the Dow Jones industrial average is bouncing off its lows, but it is still down 277 points to 8,482. The Nasdaq composite index is off 38 points to 1,489. The S&P has 500 dropped 25 points to 992.

The CDNX is bucking al these negative trends today, at midday it is actually up half a point to 2,786. Volume is soft at 11.6 million shares.

Energy and techs are weak, but miners are strong. The top trader is Cantex Mines Development, flat at 6¢ on 323,300 shares.