At midday, the TSE 300 is down 35 points to 7875. Volume is robust at 95 million shares, with buyers outpacing sellers by 17:13. Losers hold a slight edge over winners though, by a margin of 10 to nine.

Markets opened down due to renewed accounting concerns, after Qwest Communications revealed that the SEC is investigating some of its accounting practices.

With accounting worries in the tech area, that group is leading the way Down. It’s off about 2%. There’s also substantial weakness in the paper group, conglomerates, miners, banks and media stocks. The consumer products group is higher, as are pipelines and the safe haven play, golds.

Nortel Networks is suffering the brunt of the tech gloom. It’s down about 3.4% at midday. Celestica is also weak, dropping 2.5%. Geac is down notably, too.

Alcan is leading the metals group lower, off about 1%. Aur Resources is weak, as is Teck, River Gold Mines, Gauntlet Energy ad Maverick Tube. Paper stocks are down, thanks to 2.5% slides in Abitibi and Domtar. Against the overall weakness in resources, there’s strength in Sherritt, Placer Dome, and Barrick.

Bank of Nova Scotia is doing the honours for the banks. It’s down 1.4% at midday.

Power Corp is down modestly in heavy trading today, as is Hudson’s Bay.

There’s strength in Air Canada, thanks to some positive analyst talk. And there are also gains in names such as CRS Robotics, UTS Energy, CoolBrands, Cinram, Patheon, Bell Canada International, and Shermag.

The S&P/CDNX Composite Index is down three points at midday to 1,160. Volume is about average at 17.7 million shares. Oasis Diamond Explorations is the top trader today, gaining 17% to 14¢ on 590,000 shares.

In New York, stocks opened down and have traded down in a range all day. The Dow Jones industrial index is off 15 ticks to 10557. The Nasdaq composite index has dropped 19 points to 1911. The S&P has dropped two ticks to 1162.