Friday’s trading so far has been incredibly volatile. A huge down open was met with a rally, another sharp selloff, and now at midday things appear to be improving.

Markets are extremely jittery with war on the horizon, the possibility of more terrorist attacks, and an options expiration day. At midday, the TSE 300 is down 74 points to 6,448.

European markets finished a volatile session of their own, with the FTSE ending down 99 points to 4,458. The CAC 40 closed off 85 points to 3,653. Germany’s DAX shed 81 points to 3,729.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average fell almost 350 points at the open. After GE affirmed guidance, the Dow rallied up 50 points into positive territory. That energy dissipated, and the Dow is now down 195 points to 8,181 on huge volume. The Nasdaq composite index is down 56 points to 1,415. The S&P 500 is down 27 ticks to 958.

While it might not be on track for record volume like they are in New York, trading in Toronto has still been voluminous. About 128 million shares have crossed the tape, with sellers outpacing buyers 14 to nine. Market breadth is more negative with losers outnumbering winners 14 to five.

Golds continue to make gains, as do energy stocks. Pipelines are up, too. Still, there are heavy losses in miners, paper stocks, consumer stocks, financials and real estate. Profit worries in a war environment seems to be the culprit.

Takeover targets Westcoast Energy and Anderson Exploration remain the hottest trades. This is helping generate gains in CP, TransCanada Pipelines, Enbridge and PipeNT.

Placer Dome is leading the safe haven gold stocks higher, but there are also notable gains in names such as Celestica, CP Rail, Four Seasons, ATI, Ballard Power and Cognos.

On the downside, Manulife continues to lead financials lower. TD Bank and Royal are dragging the bank group lower. Kingsway Financial is also helping to drag down insurers, and AGF is doing the honours for the fund companies.

Other losers include Air Canada, and CAE. Cara and Forzani are also facing attack fallout, and paper firms Domtar and Abitibi are down, too.

The CDNX is not escaping the slide today. At midday, it is down 41 points to 2,740. Volume is light at 11.7 million shares.

Techs are extremely weak, down 3.5%. Oils are down, and miners are off a bit. International Starteck Industries is the top trader, up 40% to 7¢ on 399,000 shares.