By Jeff Sanford

(November 10 – 18:00 ET) – North American financial markets took a tumble today. They’re being plagued by earnings warnings and U.S. election worries.

In Toronto the Toronto Stock Exchange 300 fell 212.43 points to close under 10,000 at 9199.10, a loss of 2.26%. Every TSE subsector was down except for paper and real estate. Leading the way down was the industrial products subsector. It dropped 3.81%. Gold fell 2.59% and metals slid 1.62%.

Among the individual tally, 660 issues declined while only 396 advanced. Many investors seem to be waiting out U.S. presidential indecision. Total volume was low at 105 million shares traded.

Traffic in TSE darling, Nortel Networks was heavy, though. With over 9 million shares trading, today, it fell $2.30 to $59.20 – a loss of 3.74%.

Several tech stock dropped by large percentages. ATI fell 3.20% to $13.60. Celestica lost $2.55 to close at $84.40, a loss of 2.93%. Research In Motion lost $14.00 to close at $137.50, a loss of 9.24%. Mitel shrank 5.01% after dropping 90¢ to $17.05. Descartes Systems also lost some value. It dropped $6.25 to close at $49.75, a loss of 11.16%. C-Mac closed at $75.00 after dropping $3.00, a loss of 3.85%. Lower third quarter earnings knocked CGI down 55¢ to 7.75, loss of 6.63%.

The financials also got hammered. TD fell $1.75 to $41.55, a loss of 4.04%. Bank of Nova Scotia closed down $1 at $44.45, a loss of 2.20%. Mackenzie was shifted by Standard & Poor’s to “CreditWatch.” It gained slightly on the day, though, to finish up 15¢ at $29.05.

Losses at the CDNX weren’t quite as bad. The Canadian Venture Exchange finished the day down just 7.35 points at 3232.87, though, decliners outnumbered advancers, 316 to 245.

The Canadian dollar finished up slightly today at US64.85¢, a gain of 0.28¢.

South of the border was ally tough day on the markets. The techs got slaughtered as the NASDAQ composite index sunk 171.36 points to close at 3028.99 points. The Dow Jones industrial average sank even further, though, dropping 231.30 points to close at 10602.95.