By James Langton

(February 23 – 13:00 ET) – There’s always gold. That’s how bad the market is today. By midday the Toronto Stock Exchange 300 composite index slipped below the 8,000 mark, dropping140 points to 7993. Volume has been strong at 93 million shares, with sellers outnumbering buyers 17:10. Losers are beating winners 22:15.

On a sector basis, gold has gained 3.4%, as investors dump everything else. All other sectors are down, led by the industrials which are down 3.7%. Losses have been heavy in the financials, miners and utilities.

As expected, Nortel Networks is the anchor. Earnings warnings from Motorola and Sun Microsystems are hitting the techs and telecoms worldwide. The results of the Nortel sell-off spell another 5% slide on robust volume of 6.1 million shares.

Nortel’s parent, BCE, is down 2%, joined by a slew of techs. Big losers include, Janna, Research in Motion, Celestica, Open Text, Alcatel, MGI Software and Tundra Semi. Other losers include blue chips such as Bombardier, DaimlerChrysler, and all the banks.

The banks are down, too, as the tech sector continues to break down. Their lending exposure to the sector is spooking investors. There’s a little buying among the Insurers, as some investors take refuge there.

The beneficiaries of this flight to safety are Barrick, Placer and Kinross, all up sharply in quite heavy trading. A few other winners include Precision Drilling, Gildan, Trizec Hahn, Bonavista Petroleum, Sherritt and Burlington Resources.

The CDNX is down, too, off 12 points to 3081. Volume is weak at 13 million shares. Techs are leading the way down, oils are flat and miners are weak too. Abacus Minerals Corp is the top trader, down 33% to 2¢ on 599,000 shares.

The scene is just as tough in New York, where early rallies have been defeated, and the market heads toward intra-day lows. Currently, the Dow Jones industrial index is down 180 points to 10,345. The Nasdaq Composite Index is off 75 ticks to 2171. The S&P is off 28 to 1225. Sun, Motorola and no good reason to buy are hitting the markets here too.

In business news, Alberta Energy Company Ltd. is planning a 5% buyback. Many suddenly flush energy firms are looking for uses for their cash, and this is AEC’s spending choice.