Toronto stocks fell victim Thursday morning to the warnings of worse-than-expected profits in the U.S. technology sector, while U.S. markets managed to hold on to early gains.

As of midday Thursday, Toronto’s S&P/TSX composite index was off 37.14 points or 0.44% to 8444.8. The junior TSX Venture Exchange gained 3.78 points or 0.24% to 1571.61.

In New York, the Dow industrials moved 9.88 points or 0.1% higher to 10250.17. The Nasdaq lost 6.24 points or 0.32% at 1959.84, while the S&P 500 index was 0.63 point lighter at 1117.7.

The Canadian dollar appeared headed for its first close above US76¢ since April 7. It moved up as high as US75.96¢ on continued weakness in the American dollar, but had fallen back to US75.87¢ by midday.

Leading the way down on Toronto markets were the information technology stocks, which were down 1.07%. Nortel Networks Corp. resumed its spot as most active — it was off 16¢ to $5.90 — after seeing two gold stocks, Iamgold and Wheaton River, trade furiously after their merger deal collapsed on Tuesday.

Energy stocks, despite a rise in the price of crude oil rose, financial stocks and real estate were among other sectors posting losses as of noon Thursday. Gold stocks were up 1.38% as the price of bullion jumped US$3.60 to US$405.90 US an ounce.

New York markets were mixed with techs on the losing end. Investors were upset with Yahoo. The Internet portal’s shares were well off the lows of the morning but still down US$2.07 to US$30.53 despite reporting its second-quarter profit more than doubled on strong ad revenues. The company earned $112.5 million US, up from $50.8 million a year ago. However, markets were unhappy with the fact that results merely met expectations and Yahoo didn’t raise its forecast for the rest of the year.

A mixed picture of June retail sales in the U.S. also muted buying interest. Investors shrugged off data showing the number of new first-time U.S. jobless claims fell to a three-year low and came in better than analysts expected. However, the creation of jobs still remains an issue after last week’s disappointing payroll report for June.

Overseas, Tokyo’s Nikkei Stock Average of 225 issues dipped 62.63 points, or 0.55%, to 11,322.23 – the index’s lowest close since it was at 11,128.05 on June 4.

Hong Kong shares closed lower as investors cashed in on gains accumulated over the previous three days. The Hang Seng Index plunged 200.51 points, or 1.6%, to 12,119.75.

London’s FTSE 100 index rose 18.4 points to 4,376.8.

Frankfurt’s DAX 30 was flat while the Paris CAC 40 was ahead 0.2%.