Volume has revived a bit with the return of U.S. traders today, but the market action isn’t much better. At midday, the S&P/TSX index is down 17 points at midday to 6,723.

Volume is on the low side at 113 million shares, with the buying ahead of the selling by a four to three margin. Market breadth is much more even, with losers edging winners by a shade.

The weakness is coming in financials, as a number of big global financial firms in the U.S. and Europe report some mediocre results. Telecoms, materials and consumer discretionary stocks are down, too.

Against this, techs are higher, as are golds and real estate, but none of the upside moves are very compelling.

Banking stocks are lower today after global giants such as Citigroup and Credit Suisse reported weak results driven by loan losses and costly legal entanglements. Royal Bank has dropped 0.7%, TD Bank is off 0.6% and CIBC is down 0.4%, all on active volume. Manulife is leading the insurers lower, dropping 2.6%. And, the TSX Group itself is showing up with a 1.6% loss. Fairfax Financial continues to attract lots of trading, recovering 10% today on active volume.

Alcan is another notable loser today, down 3.4% on its latest earnings results.

Strong selling is also evident in names such as Ballard Power, CP Ships, Baytex Energy, Moore Corp., and Nova Chemicals.

Nortel is leading the techs higher once again, gaining 1.4% on volume of 11.4 million shares, which is much lower than recent trading volumes in the stock. Bomabrdier, CAE and ID Biomedical are all trending higher, too.

Other gainers include Petro Canada, Westaim, Nevsun Resources, Southwestern Resources, Eldorado Gold, Kinross Gold and Burntsand.

In M&A news, Victoria Resource has signed letters of intent to acquire interests in three gold exploration properties in Nevada from Newmont Mining Corp. Final agreements are expected to be completed by February, and are subject to due diligence and regulatory approvals. Bema Gold owns 42% of Victoria.

In New York, the direction has also been down, but the price action has been much heavier. The Dow Jones industrial average is 66 points lower at midday to 8,520. War worries and earnings realities are weighing on markets. The S&P 500 has dropped six ticks to 896. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index is just a couple of points lower at 1,374.

The small caps are also a touch weaker, with the S&P/TSX Venture index sliding two points to 1,122. Volume is strong at 19.9 million shares. EXP Resources is the day’s top trader so far, flat at 2¢ per share with 805,000 shares changing hands.