Market averages are facing modest losses Wednesday, led by tech stock selling. At midday the S&P/TSX index is down 17 points to 7,311.

Volume is quite light at just 75.4 million shares, with selling holding a 12:11 edge on the buying. The split between winners and losers also favours the bears, with decliners outweighing the gainers by 20:17.

Tech stocks are leading the way down after a few earnings warnings emerge in that sector, including names such as Apple and Advanced Micro. Techs and telecoms are both down about 2% so far today. This is also hitting the financial services group.

Against this, there are some gains in health care stocks, industrials, energy and diversifieds.

The earnings warnings in the tech sector are spilling over to the tech and telecom sectors generally, with losses coming in names such as ATI Technologies, GSI Lumonics, Magellan Aerospace, Telus, Aliant, Rogers and BCE.

Solectron is bucking the trend, with strong gains. And, Cognos is up, too.

Weak techs means trouble for their lenders, so TD Bank is leading the financials down. CIBC is weak, Royal Bank is flat. Insurer Canada Life is also down.

Other losers include Molson, and golds such as Barrick, Placer Dome and Iamgold.

On the upside, it’s primarily old economy companies that are carrying the day. CN Rail is up, as is Rio Alto, First Calgary Petroleums, Wheaton River Minerals, Teck, Inco and Moore Corp.

In business news today, MDS has filed to repurchase up to six million common shares during the next 12 months.

On the earnings front, Sceptre Investment Counsel reported that its second quarter earnings were $1,624,000, compared with $1,727,000 for the same period last year.

Cytovax Biotechnologies Inc said that for the year ended March 31, it incurred a net loss of $4.2 million, compared with a net loss of $2.6 million in the previous year.

Wescam reported net earnings for the second quarter were $2.8 million, compared with net earnings of $2.4 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2001.

In New York, markets are also showing modest declines on the day. The Dow Jones industrial average is down 11 points at midday to 9,695. The S&P 500 has dropped four points to 1,033. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index is leading the losers today, down 15 points to 1,528.

The small caps are not resisting the selling pressure today either. At midday, the S&P/TSX Venture index has dropped nine points to 1182. Volume is strong at 17.4 million shares. The top trader is Cubacan Exploration, up 1¢ to 5¢ on 699,000 shares.