Stocks are trading up off their intra-day lows, but they remain down on the day overall. At midday, the S&P/TSX index is down 32 points to 6,186.

Volume remains on the low side at 68.6 million shares, with the down volume swamping the up volume by a three to one margin. Market breadth is more even, with losers outnumbering winners by about 17:14.

The only notable source of resistance to the selling is the tech stocks, they are up about 1%, on news of Dell Computer’s strong guidance. There are a few other sectors showing gains, but nothing dramatic.

The weakness is centered in industrials, following Dow Chemical’s earnings warning and the ongoing U.S. west coast port lockout. But there is also selling in financials, telecoms, materials and consumer plays.

There is weakness in the transportation sector, with CN Rail down more than 3% in active trading. CP Rail is down, too. The looming economic effect of the dockworkers’ labour dispute is souring traders on these stocks.

Nova Chemicals is down more than 3% following the Dow Chemical warning. There is also weakness in Alcan, CAE, Rogers, Angiotech, Nortel Networks and energy plays such as EnCana and Canadian 88.

The banks remain on a roller coaster ride. Today they are sliding, led by Royal Bank, down 1.2%. TD Bank and Scotia are both down in active trading too. Sun Life has dropped about 3%, too.

On the upside, techs are gaining a little strength, with rallies coming in Celestica, CGI, and Cognos. Biovail is higher today, as is Corus.

In M&A news, Mullen Transportation is expanding its oil field services segment with four new acquisitions. Three of the deals have been completed. They are expected to increase Mullen’s consolidated revenues by approximately $80 million and operating earnings by approximately $12 million, on an annualized basis.

Also, Dundee Wealth Management has closed its acquisition of StrategicNova Inc. Dundee Wealth has placed 100% of its operations into a new private holding company, DWM Inc., which is 81.7% owned by Dundee Wealth and 18.3% owned by CDP Capital.

Canada Life Financial has completed the acquisition of the group life and long-term disability business from Royal & SunAlliance Insurance Group plc for approximately $150 million in cash. The transaction is expected to be neutral to earnings for the rest of 2002 and accretive to earnings by 10 to 13¢ per share in 2003. Its stock is up 2.2% on the news.

In New York, markets opened much lower on assorted bits of negative news, but they have now almost clawed their way back to neutral. The Dow Jones industrial average is still down 33 points to 7,905. The S&P 500 is close to unchanged at 848. And, the Nasdaq is down two ticks to 1,212.

The small caps in Canada are holding a tiny gain, up a single point to 950. Volume is very weak at less than 11 million shares. The top trader is Atlas Energy, down 3.6% on 529,000 shares.