By James Langton

(September 27 – 13:00 ET) – Markets opened stronger this morning, but the enthusiasm quickly waned and the sellers have taken over. More specifically they’ve taken over at Nortel.

Apart from Nortel the market internals are mildly positive. At midday the TSE 300 is down 72 points to 10,406. Volume is light at 71 million shares, about 13:9 in favour of buyers. Advancers are slightly ahead of decliners.

Nortel opened stronger this morning taking the TSE with it, but investor sentiment turned. At midday Nortel is down about 3.5% in heavy trading of more than 5 million shares. Negative sentiment for the entire tech sector seems to be the only explanation for the turnaround.

Industrials are down 2% as a result. The other weakness is trifling. On the upside, golds, media stocks and oils are all up notably.

Following Nortel on the downside are many of the big names in tech, including JDS Uniphase, Research in Motion, Pivotal, Ballard Power and PRI Automation. IMAX continues to slide heavily, too.

The tech action is selective today, though, with names such as Alcatel, Sierra Wireless, Biovail, Janna Systems and NPS Alllelix all up nicely. Bombardier is strong, up 2%. BCE is flat in heavy trading.

The oil and gas sector is up on the strength of higher prices today, but Husky Energy is sliding. Gulf Canada is up, along with several others.

Penny stocks are active on the TSE today, with Heritage Concepts up 11% in heavy trading. Crew Development and Star Resources are also top 10 traders.

In New York stocks are mixed at midday. The Dow is down 14 points to 10,617. The Nasdaq is up 20 points though to 3,709. The S&P 500 has gained three ticks to 1,430.

Priceline.com Inc. is the story on Wall Street, off more than 40%, after it warned that quarterly results will disappoint investors. Kodak is still taking body shots based on yesterday’s profit warning. These announcements are keeping traders hunkered down until warning season subsides.

Stocks such as Yahoo and Lucent are sliding today on general skepticism for their sectors. Oil is the strongest sector today.

The CDNX is sliding a little, off three points to 3,531 on volume of 21 million shares. Mines and techs are the weakness, while oils are up. Pure Lean Inc is the top trader up 75% to 35¢ on 1.6 million shares.