By James Langton

(March 12 -13:15 ET) – Markets opened sharply lower this morning and are grinding down further at midday, thanks to profit worries worldwide. The TSE 300 has slipped under the magical 8,000 mark, down 175 points to 7,960.

Volume is relatively light at 66.1 million shares, with selling ahead of the buying almost two to one. Market breadth reflects a similar tone, with losers outnumbering winners two to one. A virtual buying drought is allowing markets to crumble on both sides of the border.

Tech stocks are the real problem. In Toronto, hardware is down 6.3% today, with software off almost 5%, too. As a result the industrial sub-index is down 5%.

The deterioration of the Asian market started this slide, followed by weak profit reports in Europe and a severe earnings warning from Ericsson. But this weakness is spilling throughout the broader market, everything except gold is down. Consumer stocks are down 2.6%, financials are off 2.3%, the rest of the old economy is down, too.

Nortel Networks is leading the way down, off 7.7% on 7.2 million shares. It is joined by heavy selling in tech names such as JDS Uniphase, Alcatel, C-MAC, PRI Automation and Ballard Power. Old economy losers include Bombardier, Veritas and the banks.

The banks are down heavily on credit concerns related to their telecom lending exposure. The insurers are weak, too.

Gold is the only safe haven today, leading to some strong buying in Barrick, Placer Dome, Kinross and Franco-Nevada.

Another name enjoying some strength is United Dominion. The stock is up 14% on 6.8 million shares on news of a US$1.83 billion takeover deal for the firm, announced this morning.

Today’s other winners are a mixed bag and their volume is very weak. Nevertheless, there are gains in Softkey Software, First Service, Potash Corp. and Winpak.

In New York, markets are falling through psychological barriers of their own. The Dow Jones industrial average is off 231 points to 10,414, within sight of the 10,000 level.

The Nasdaq composite is off 10 points to 1,951, below the magic 2,000 level. Despite the tech led downturn, even the S&P 500 is down 34 points to 1,199. As in Toronto, gold is about the only safe haven south of the border.

Nasdaq is being led lower by Cisco Systems, off 9.4%. Ciena is down 18%. Other losers include Oracle, Intel, Microsoft, Ericsson, Dell and JDS.

On the New York Stock Exchange, it’s Nortel, Corning, EMC, AOL and GE leading the way down. Citigroup is leading the financials lower. Only takeover target American General is on the upside among the exchange’s top traders.

The CDNX is actually holding up best today on a percentage basis. It is down 24 points to 3,110. Volume is strong at 19.7 million shares.

Tech is certainly weak, off more than 3%, and oils are down, too, but miners are holding up. William Multi-Tech is the top trader yet again, flat at 4¢ on 3.4 million shares.