By Stewart Lewis

(April 6 – 17:30 ET) – Toronto stocks fell, today, after several profit warnings and weak economic data from the U.S. crushed the rebound made on Thursday. Positive job figures in Canada didn’t brighten the picture.

The Toronto Stock Exchange 300 composite index fell 97.53 points to 7474.75. Declining stocks beat advancing issues 528 to 449, on volume of 112.9 million shares.

The TSE 300 fell 134 points this week. Today, 11 of the TSE’s 14 sub-indices fell, led by the techs. Nortel Networks fell 1.05 to 20.40. Fiber-optics equipment company JDS Uniphase fell 2.35 to 24.35. Research In Motion dropped 2.58 to 32.70 and Celestica slid 5.89 to 39.10.

The utilities fell 2.04%, BCE 1.20 to 34.65. Telus, its western Canadian- based rival, fell 0.50 to 35.50.

Golds, the safe haven group, rose 0.76 per cent. But banking did not fare as well. Royal Bank, received regulatory approval to increase its authorized capital, but fell 0.60 to 46.19, CI BC slid 0.30 to 49.50, and Bank of Nova Scotia dropped 0.20 to 40.05.

The CDNX had a tough day, too, falling 30.90 to 2097.06.

New York markets also experienced a sell-off after making big gains yesterday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 126.96 points to 9791.09. The tech-laden NADAQ composite index dropped 64.62 points to 1720.38.

The Canadian dollar finished the day up US0.39¢, climbing to US63.92¢.