By James Langton

(May 18 – 13:00 ET) – Markets are in the midst of some lacklustre trading today. StatsCan reports of Canadian inflation failed to spur languid markets.

The TSE 300 composite index is down 17 points at midday to 9535. The volume is light at 71.3 million shares, split about 7:6 in favour of buyers. The split between advances and declines is almost dead even, too.

Not surprisingly the TSE’s 14 subgroups are also split evenly. Miners, transports and
merchandisers are solid. The weakness is centered in technology, software and telecoms.

JDS Uniphase is leading the way down, off 4%, after it announced its CEO would retire. General weakness is following in 724 Solutions, Research in Motion, Celestica, Newbridge and QLT Phototherapeutics. BCE is down 1.6% on 2.4 million shares. Laidlaw continues to slide.

Air Canada is leading the way on the upside, gaining 12% on 2.9 million shares. Nortel Networks is flat, but there are gains in stocks such as Certicom and Delrina. Biotechs, Lorus and and Angiotech are both up strongly. Manulife Financial is gaining in strong trading on the heels of yesterday’s good results.

This morning both TD Bank and Royal Bank reported record earnings. Profit is also up at Power Financial.

Volume has disappeared in New York too, and lazy trading prevails. The Dow is up 36 points to 10805. NASDAQ has dropped 58 points to 3586. The S&P is down just three points to 1444.

The small caps are perking up today. The CDNX has gained 11 points to 3441 on solid volume of 19.7 million shares. The techs are flat, oils are up, but miners are down. Seventh Wave Capital is the leading trader, up 400% to 50¢ on more than 2 million shares.