Markets are spinning their wheels Tuesday as they wait for some indication on the Iraq situation in tonight’s U.S. state of the union address. At midday, the S&P/TSX index is up just 11 points to 6,568.

Volume is weak at just 91.6 million shares, with the selling outweighing the buying by a nine to eight margin. Market breadth is also negative, with losers outnumbering winners by 17:13.

Markets are also mixed on a sector basis. Utilities, financials, industrials and health care stocks are all stronger. But techs are a little weaker, golds and diversified names are also giving up some ground.

Nortel remains the top trader, but the stock is only moving a tiny bit on lower-than-usual volume of 17.3 million shares.

Ballard Power is a strong gainer, up more than 9% today. There are also strong gains in Open Text and CGI Group.

CGI posted higher first-quarter sales and earnings. The company reported net earnings of $37 million for the quarter ended Dec. 31. That’s up from the year-ago profit of $30.6 million.

Cognos and Royal Group Tech are weighing on the tech group.

Financials stocks are bouncing back a bit today. Scotia is leading the way with a 0.7% gain on volume of 1.1 million shares. CIBC and Royal Bank aren’t far behind either.

BMO Financial reported that it has increased its medium-term dividend payment goal to 35%-45% from 30%-40% of net income. The board declared an increase in the dividend by 10%, raising the quarterly dividend to 33¢ per share.

Sceptre is also seeing a better-than-2% gain in active trading.

Other gainers include names such as BCE, Fording, CP Rail, Patheon, Southwestern Resources, Methanex and Quebecor.

On the downside, Suncor Energy is sliding a little. There is also weakness in Air Canada, First Service Corp., Noranda and Eldorado Gold.

Kinross is down about 3% on news that its shareholders have approved the combination with Echo Bay Mines and TVX Gold, a share consolidation, a reduction in its stated capital account maintained for its common shares by approximately $747 million, and the termination of its shareholder rights plan. The merger is subject to various conditions including shareholder approval of both Echo Bay and TVX and the final approval of the plan of arrangement by the Superior Court of Justice, Ontario.

In other news, Mosaic Group has retained Lazard Freres & Co. LLC, New York, as investment banker to assist in the possible sale of all or part of the company.

Bowater reported a net loss of $66.6 million for the fourth quarter of 2002. These results compare with net income of $16.0 million in the fourth quarter of 2001. In 2002, Bowater had a net loss of $142.4 million. This compares with net income of $70.5 million in 2001.

Metro Inc reported that its net earnings for the first quarter increased 16.1% to $35.3 million, compared with $30.4 million last year.

Small caps are slumping today, with the S&P/TSX Venture index down seven points to 1,111. Volume is way down there too, at just 16.3 million shares. The day’s top trader is Adobe Ventures, up 4¢ to 7¢ on 424,700 shares.

In New York, stocks are also holding modest gains but trading is subdued. The Dow Jones industrial avearage has gained 55 points at midday to 8,044. The S&P 500 has added six ticks to 8.53. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index is five points higher at 1330.

In U.S. economic news, the Commerce Dept. reported that durable-goods orders for December increased US$0.4 billion or 0.2% to US$170.1 billion. This followed a 1.3% November decrease. Excluding transportation, new orders increased 1.1%.

The Conference Board reported that U.S. consumer confidence slipped only a little in January, despite war jitters. The headline index was 79, barely down from December’s upwardly revised 80.7 reading.

New home sales in the United States rose 3.5% in December to a new record high of 1.082 units, beating expectations.