Stocks reverted to recent form this morning, with yet another broad-based sell off dragging indexes lower. At midday, the S&P/TSX index is down 63 points to 7076. Volume is moderate at 91 million shares, with sellers outpacing buyers by about 18:11. Losers hold an 11:7 edge over winners.

Again today, investors are worried about the strength of the U.S. recovery and the fallout from corporate misdeeds. Tech stocks are weaker, down about 3.5%. There’s weakness in health care stocks, telecoms, utilities, financials and consumer plays. Golds are enjoying a flight to safety bid, gaining about 3%. And, materials and diversifieds are showing a modest rise too.

Techs and telecoms are weaker on fears of slow recovery and heavy debt loads. BCE is down about 3.7% on heavy trading of 2.7 million shares. Nortel Networks has dropped another 6.4% to just $2.49 per share on 11.1 million shares. There’s also some compelling selling in Telus and Rogers. Volatile components such as ATI Technologies, Biovail, QLT and Ballard Power are all down sharply too. Although, Stressgen Biotechnologies is up notably at midday.

Royal Bank is leading the financials down, it has dropped almost 3% on news of a US$517 million dispute with Dutch bank Rabobank over a derivative obligation. Some of this weakness is spilling over to TD Bank and Bank of Nova Scotia too. AGF has also dropped 4%.

There’s also some weakness in big names such as EnCana and CP Ships.

All this negative action is spelling strength for the golds. Barrick is up 1.4%. And, there’s strength in Kinross, Eldorado Gold, TVX Gold, Meridian Gold, Agnico Eagle, Goldcorp and Glamis Gold.

In business news, Enerchem International Inc. has completed its $15 million private placement financing underwritten by Sprott Securities Inc.

And, Telepanel Systems Inc. reports that its loss for 2002 was $5,589,342, compared with $5,948,089 for 2001. The decrease in the loss was mainly due the decrease in operating expenses, partially offset by a restructuring charge.

The same negative attitude to the markets is taking down New York’s big indexes. The Dow is down 141 points to 9113. The S&P has dropped 15 ticks to 974. Nasdaq is down 23 points to 1418.

The strength in golds is helping the small cap names hold up better. The S&P/TSX Venture index has dropped just two points to 1192. Volume is on the light side at 14.2 million shares. The top trader is American Bonanza Gold, flat at 20¢ per share on 1.1 million shares traded.