Markets are weak today in another lacklustre trading session. At midday the Toronto Stock Exchange 300 composite index is down 48 points to 6863. Volume is weak at 52.5 million shares, with sellers outpacing buyers 3:2. Losers also hold a 9:7 edge on winners.

Techs are off notably. So are golds, paper stocks, real estate and media plays. But the big losers are the banks.

The banks are down 2.75%, driving the financials lower. The banks are being dumped across the board today, led by Royal Bank which is down almost 5% in heavy trading, after outperforming the market in recent days. Bank of Montreal is down 4%, followed by CIBC and Bank of Nova Scotia. Traders appear to be getting leery of the banks as they fear mergers remain distant and they face their year-ends in a tough environment, as reflected in recent earnings reports by U.S. financials.

Following the banks, Clarica and Canada Life are leading the insurers lower.

C-Mac and Celestica leading the sell-off among the techs. They are joined in weakness by Nortel Networks. But there is strength in tech, with Cognos, BCE Emergis, Microcell, and biotechs such as QLT, Biovail and MDS. Kniross and Placer Dome are leading the gold stocks lower.

Hudson’s Bay is down about 7% today on news that it now expects its third-quarter loss per share to be in the range of five cents to 10¢ for the third quarter ended October 31.

On the upside, Air Canada is making gains on news that it has financing arrangements in place, and substantial credit. There are also notable gains in Alcan, Imperial Oil and Vincor.

In New York, the action has been more positive. Improving sentiment about the corporate earnings picture is helping boost stocks today. So far, the Dow Jones industrials average is up 50 points to 9254. The Nasdaq composite index has gained 15 points to 1686. The S&P is up three points to 1077.

The small caps are also looking stronger today. The CDNX is up 20 points today to 2920. Volume is weak at 10 million shares. Techs are leading the way higher, up 2%. Oils are strong and miners are flat. Imagis Technologies is the top trader again, down 5% to $2.71on volume of 382,500 shares.