By James Langton

(September 15 – 17:00 ET) –
Markets pulled a Leon Lett today –
they picked up their positive
inflation surprise this morning
and promptly ran the wrong way
with it. Traders should have been
pleased to hear that core
inflation in the U.S. grew only
0.1% in August, slower than
expected. But markets fumbled the
positive news and traded down.
Early afternoon saw a brief
respite. Selling then deepened
toward the close.

The TSE 300 index finished the
day down 75 points. Volume was
comparatively light at 96 million
shares and the breadth was
decidedly negative. Decliners
closed ahead of advancers about
11:8. The volume grew more negative
toward the close. It finished
at 3:1 in favour of sellers.

None of the TSE’s subgroups
managed to keep its head above
water. Media stocks were
slaughtered today, down more than
2%. Golds, other miners and
utilities were among the biggest
losers.

BCE lost almost 2.5%,
Rogers Communications lost
4.25% on the day. Ranger Oil
led most of the energy stocks down.
Seagram was beaten up today,
as were Four Seasons and
Fairfax Financial.

Toronto’s tech stocks were down,
on the heels of weakness in the
chips and semiconductors in the
U.S. Stocks such as JDS Uniphase,
Research in Motion and TLC,
which trade a fair amount in the
U.S., had tough days.

Montreal followed the TSE’s
selling, finishing the day down
36 points. Vancouver dropped half
a point, while only Alberta managed
to hang onto a sustained rally,
finishing up 22 points.

In New York, the Dow tried to
get happy about the inflation
picture, but it wasn’t up to the
task. Some heavy selling came in
at the close, pushing the Dow to
finish down 108 points on the day.

It seems that a shred of
negative data can have traders
pushing the sell button. But it
will take a lot more to spark any
kind of a rally. Nasdaq was hit
harder than the Dow, closing off
almost 2%, or 54 points. The S&P
ended the day down by 18 points.