Ahead of a hotly anticipated rate decision in the U.S., markets are decidedly mellow.

At midday, the TSE 300 is down 22 points to 7,503. Volume is relatively light at 55.8 million shares, with the buying ahead of the selling by about seven to five.

Market breadth is more negative, with losers outnumbering winners by a margin of six to five.

A strong move in real estate stocks in the wake of OMERS bid for Oxford Properties is preventing a larger index loss. Real estate is up almost 4%.

Other gainers include mining stocks, energy, transports and consumer stocks. Golds are weak, as are techs, conglomerates, financials and utilities.

Oxford is the stock of the day on the heels of OMERS bid valuing the firm at $3.8 billion. It has gained 23% on 8.7 million shares this morning.

While the real estate group is benefiting from the jump in Oxford, the gains are coming in broad variety of stocks, including decent buying volume in Sherritt, Celestica, CIBC, Empire and Bombardier. Other stocks, such as Geac, Winpak, Domtar, Angiotech, Open Text and Teck are all up.

The losers today are similarly a mixed bag, including CP, Research in Motion, JDS Uniphase, PanCanadian Petroleum, Descartes Systems, BCE Emergis, Toromont, Canada Life and Clarica Life.

Royal Bank is down about 1.4% after announcing its latest earnings. For the third quarter ended July 31, the bank achieved cash net income of $518 million ($664 million or 94¢ per share excluding special items, namely a restructuring charge for the acquisition of Centura Banks, and a writedown of deferred income tax assets). Net income was $436 million ($582 million or 82¢ per share excluding these special items.

Hollinger Canadian Newspapers had net income of the partnership for the quarter ended June 30 of $22.8 million or 12¢ per unit compared with 18¢ for the quarter ended June 30.

In New York, markets are quiet ahead of this afternoon’s rate decision. The Dow Jones industrial average is up 38 points to 10,358. The Nasdaq composite index has gained 10 ticks to 1,891. The S&P 500 is up six points to 1,178.

Over on the CDNX, stocks are flat at 3,084. Volume is on the light side at 10.9 million shares.

Miners and oils are up, but techs are down, resulting in a draw. William Multi-Tech is the top trader today, the former TSE listing is up 50% today to 3¢ on volume of 953,093 shares.