Stocks opened weaker today, after more news of corporate accounting worries, and weak sales in the tech sector.

At midday, the Toronto Stock Exchange 300 composite index is down 44 points to 7,864.

Volume is strong at 90.8 million shares, with selling outrunning buying by a margin of two to one. Losers outnumber winners by about 17:13.

Techs are the weakest group, down about 4% on accounting and earnings worries. The banks are also soft, down about 0.5%. There’s selling in conglomerates, publishers and transportation equipment.

Against this tide of selling, strength is emerging in resources, with miners, oils, pipelines, paper stocks, and golds, all gaining.

Techs are the story of the day, after WorldCom admitted that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is looking at its books. Weak forecasts from Nokia and Lucent are hurting the group, too.

Nortel Networks is down more than 5% in heavy trading on the news. Celestica has dropped 3%, JDS Uniphase is down 6%, and there are significant slides in Solectron, Bell Canada International, and Mosaid.

The banks have been weaker today, after Credit Suisse issued a gloomy forecast. CIBC and TD are leading the way down, in active trading. Royal Bank is up a bit, while Scotia is also down.

Other notable losers at midday include AEC, Hurricane Hydrocarbons, Thomson, Bombardier and Quebecor.

The golds are the big beneficiary of the selling in techs. Placer and Barrick are leading the way higher, with some support from TVX Gold, and Goldcorp.

There is also buying in Moore Corp., Magna, Methanex, Four Seasons, Alcan and Stelco.

In New York, the trade has followed much the same tune. An early drop has been met by some buying, which has pared the losses substantially.

The Dow Jones industrial average is down 32 points to 10,579. The Nasdaq composite index is much weaker, down 35 points to 1,895. The S&P 500 has dropped seven points to 1,161.

The S&P/CDNX Composite Index is lower too, down two points to 1,160. Volume is average at 16 million shares. Something called Cons Gold Win Ventures is the top trader today, gaining 29% to 9¢ on volume of 913,000 shares.