North American markets are lower midday morning after an early rally fizzled.

Toronto’s S&P/TSX composite index is off almost 40 points lower at 8,343.

The junior S&P/TSX venture composite index is down 15 points at 1,483.

Today’s positive retails sales report doesn’t appear to be giving Toronto stocks a boost. Statistics Canada said retail sales were up 0.5% in May from April to $28.6 billion, the fourth increase in five months. Excluding auto sales, retail sales were up 1.4 per cent.

Analysts said gasoline station sales were responsible for much of the increase

On the TSX, technology stocks stocks are down 2.54%. Nortel Networks off 11¢ to $5.44 and ATI Technologies losing 54¢ to $21.46.

The gold sub-index is down 1.36%

The metals and mining sector also weakened as Noranda shed 31¢to $23.20.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average is off 13 points at 9,948, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index is down 10 points at 1,838.

The broader S&P 500 is three points lower at 1,082.

In U.S. earnings news, Shares in telecommunications giant BellSouth Corp., the dominant local phone provider in nine southeastern states, rose US72¢ to US$26.62 as it beat Wall Street expectations and reported a five per cent gain in second-quarter profit on flat revenue.

In other market news, Internet search engine Google Inc. said it will sell 24.6 million shares at an estimated price range of US$108 and US$135 each in its initial public offering.

Details of the share price were contained in a company filing on Monday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The price would give the company, which is based in Mountain View, Calif., a market capitalization of between US$2.66 billion and US$3.32 billion.