Stocks are taking a beating again from a hot inflation report and cool retail sales numbers. Weak earnings are also helping to hamstring the markets.

At midday, the Toronto Stock Exchange 300 composite index is down 45 points to 7,769.

Volume is robust at 93.2 million shares, with selling edging the buying by about 15:13. Losers are outnumbering the winners by a 25:21 margin.

A slightly stronger than expected inflation report this morning has raised the spectre of more interest rate hikes in Canada. At the same time, a weaker than expected retail sales report has some worrying about the resilience of the consumer.

Financials are weak today, down about 1.4%, led by the banks, and fears of rate hikes. Consumer stocks are weak too, as are industrials, miners and health-related stocks. Golds are rising against this tide of weakness, and techs are bouncing back a bit, too.

Bank of Nova Scotia is leading the banks lower at midday. It is joined by selling in merger partners Sun Life and Clarica, which are down about 2.5% and 3% respectively.

There’s weakness in an array of blue chips today, including CN Rail, which is down almost 4%. Teck, down 4.4%, Nova Chemicals is off 2.7%. There’s also weakness in retailer Hudson’s Bay, and names such as Biovail, Bell Canada International, Telesystem International Wireless and Canadian Superior Energy.

Generally the energy stocks are about flat at midday, shaking off weak earnings in Exxon Mobil. EnCana is down just a tick.

Golds are enjoying another rally, primarily thanks to weakness elsewhere. Barrick is leading the gold bugs, up another 2.8% so far today. Kinross Gold is also strong.

Today is day for bargain hunters chasing recently troubled stocks. This trend has BCE back up about 1.2%. Nortel Networks has gained 2.2% in moderate trading. ATI Technologies and CGI Group are strong, too.

In New York, trading has been choppy and primarily focused on earnings. Markets opened lower, but by midday the Dow Jones industrial average has recovered those losses and added 24 points to the upside to sit at 10,160. The S&P is essentially flat at 1,108. The Nasdaq composite index is down eight points to 1,751.

Today the S&P/CDNX index is following the senior Canadian market. It is down 3.5 points to 1,169. Volume is on the light side at 15.5 million shares. The top trader today is Estation Network, which is up a penny to 3¢ per share on 664,000 shares traded.