Stocks on both sides of the border are weak today. At midday, the TSE 300 is down 66 points to 6939. Volume is puny, with just 55.5 million shares changing hands. Selling is outpacing buying by about 7:3. Losers outnumber winners by 10:7.

Only golds and energy stocks are up slightly today. Talk of an OPEC production cut is boosting the energy plays, and a flight to safety is helping gold. Everything else is down, with the financials as the big weak spot. Miners, techs, biotechs and conglomerates are all notably lame. There’s a rash of profit taking after some poor corporate news from Europe.

Bank of Montreal is leading the way down, off about 5%, after it announced huge increases to its loan loss provisions. All the other banks are sliding as they brace for credit quality concerns of their own. Manulife is leading the insurers down too.

Any gains made last week have given up a bit today. So techs are down, led by Celestica, Nortel Networks and C-Mac. Ballard Power and Cryptologic are weak too.

Other losers include Air Canada, Four Seasons Hotels, Intertape Polymer, Bombardier and Co-Steel.

The upside is an odd collection. Compton Petroleum, Precision Drilling and Ensign resource Services are up as an energy play. The flight to safety is boosting Placer Dome and Goldcorp. Emco is gaining after announcing strong earnings and there are gains in Aber Diamond, Hemosol, and CP Ships.

In the latest earnings news, Cara Operations reports net earnings were $12.3 million in its latest quarter, compared with $9.8 million reported last year.

In New York, broad market selling has seen trading curbs in at the NYSE. But volume is weak there too. The Dow is leading the way down, off 197 points to 9348. Nasdaq is off 31 points to 1738. The S&P is down 17 points to 1087.

The CDNX is weak today too, down 15 points to 2950. Volume is on the light side at 12 million shares. Oils are leading the way down, miners and techs are flat. Starfield Resources is the top trader, up 8% to 65¢ on 461,300 shares.