Some mixed economic news has the stock market mixed today, too. The news was fairly ugly in Canada, with surprisingly weak manufacturing data, but it was all good news in the U.S. Wading through the numbers, the S&P/TSX composite index has gained just four points to 7,936.

Toronto volume remains on the light side at just 129.5 million shares, with the buying edging out the selling by a 63:59 margin. Market breadth is a bit bearish however, as losers outnumber winners 15:13.

Golds are sliding sharply today, weighing on the market overall. The sector is down about 3%.

There is also selling in materials and real estate.

Most sectors are recording modest gains, however, there is more compelling strength in miners, which are up 1%. Nothing else has gained as much as 0.3%.

The selling in gold stocks is being led by Goldcorp, which is down 5.6% in heavy volume of 7.2 million shares. It announced its first regular monthly dividend payment for 2004 of 1.5¢ per share. Goldcorp also recently announced a special dividend of 10¢ will also be paid.

Following Goldcorp, there is also strong selling in Placer Dome, down 2.7%, and Kinross, Apollo Gold, Iamgold, Barrick, Crystallex and Bema Gold.

There is also some notable weakness in Algoma Steel, down 4% at midday. However, Stelco has recovered, jumping more than 6%, and there is strength in Cameco, Inco, and other old economy firms such as Petro Canada, EnCana, First Calgary Petroleums and International Uranium.

In the tech sector, Nortel is up 0.5% in relatively modest trading on news that Bell Canada is investing $170 million in its technology. Bell Canada International said that it will voluntarily delist its common shares from the Nasdaq.

The big winner today is CML Healthcare. It has jumped 24.5% on news that it plans to become an income trust and will spinoff its research business.

Acetex, Geac Computer, Call-Net and MDS are all higher, too.

There are modes gains in financial stocks. Scotiabank is leading the way, up 0.7%. TD Bank is up 0.6%.

Royal Bank’s gains are more restrained, it is up just 0.2% on news that RBC Dain Rauscher Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of RBC, is acquiring St. Petersburg-based William R. Hough & Co., a privately held full-service investment firm that specializes in fixed-income sales, trading and underwriting. Terms and conditions of the deal were not disclosed.

In M&A news, Bonavista Petroleum Ltd. is buying TriQuest for approximately $73 million, including the assumption of approximately $2.2 million of TriQuest’s net debt.

In New York, the strong economic data is being well received by stock traders. The Dow Jones industrial average has added 56.5 points at midday to 10,079.

The Nasdaq composite index, however, is down on profit-taking. It’s off 10 points to 1,909.

The S&P/TSX Venture index is down six ticks to 1,655. Volume is on the light side there too at 35.7 million shares. Zaq Inc. is the day’s top trader once again, down 1.5¢ to 26¢ with 3.4 million shares traded.