A combination of weak earnings and gloomy economic news has markets sliding today.

The TSE 300 has dropped 31 points to 6,865.

Volume is on the weak side today at 64.5 million shares. Down volume holds a slight edge on the up volume, and losers certainly outnumbes winners.

Technology is the weakest group, after some poor earnings and forecasts from U.S. networking firms. Miners, real estate, utilities and financials are also weak. There’s strength in gold, transports, energy stocks and several media sectors.

Celestica is leading the slide today, down almost 3% in active trading. Nortel Networks, JDS Uniphase and BCE Emergis are all down, too. Bell Canada International is sliding again, too, as is BCE.

Financials are weak once again today. Royal Bank is leading the banking group lower. Manulife is driving the insurers down. Sun Life is mitigating the damage in the insurance group, up 2.3%.

There’s also weakness in Brookfield Properties, QLT, Linamar and Four Seasons Hotels.

On the upside, some strong earnings results are driving the trade. Barrick, Franco-Nevada and Placer Dome are powering higher after Barrick reported its results for the latest quarter.

Similarly, Telus is up more than 7% after announcing its latest earnings. Rogers Wireless is following along, too.

There are also gains in PanCanadian Energy, CN Rail, Nexen, and Cascades.

DuPont Canada has released its results for the third quarter, boasting net earnings for the quarter of $54.6 million, compared with $61.7 million last year.

In New York, markets have been hit harder. Traders were already disappointed by the lack of a European rate cut this morning when they were hit with a huge drop in durable goods orders.

The drop at the open has more or less been sustained through the morning. At midday, the Dow Jones industrial average is down 112 points to 9,234. The Nasdaq composite index has dropped 31 points to 1,700. The S&P 500 is down 13 points to 1,072.

The CDNX is down five points today to 2,933. Volume is light at 11.7 million shares.

Techs and miners are down a tick, but all the CDNX sectors are basically unchanged. Gee-Ten Ventures Inc. is the top trader, down 5% to 18¢ on 638,000 shares.