Bay Street, flying solo Monday while Wall Street was closed for the Independence Day holiday, got off to a good start, but by midday had lost all momentum.

After being ahead by nearly 40 points in early trading, the S&P/TSX dipped into negative territory as of late morning, down 0.4 of a point at 8486. Meanwhile, the TSX Venture Exchange was in negative territory, down 3.59 points or 0.23% to 1575.67.

With U.S. markets closed, trading was light.

The culprit, as it was Friday, was the technology group, which were off 1.26%, thanks largely to Nortel Networks Corp., whose stock continued to fall; it was off 24¢ to $5.81 late in the morning.

Early gains in energy stocks — higher after Iraq’s oil exports were cut nearly in half as workers struggled Monday to repair a key pipeline shut down after looters sabotaged the line — were wiped out. Industrials also were up, as were gold, materials and financials.

The Canadian dollar was down 0.13 of a cent from Friday at US75.39¢.

In corporate news, BMO Finanacial is offering a new way to play its stock. In a prospectus filed Friday , the BMONT Split Corp. will hold common shares of BMO, splitting them into income-earning preferred shares and market-dependent capital shares.

Overseas, European indices edged higher in early action and Asian stock markets closed generally mixed, with prices falling in Tokyo.

London’s FTSE 100 index gained 6.8 points at 4414.2, Frankfurt’s DAX 30 gave up 0.03% while the Paris CAC 40 was up 0.11%. Tokyo’s Nikkei Stock Average of 225 issues fell 179.78 points, or 1.53% to 11,541.71.

Traders said market players were increasingly nervous about prospects for U.S. stocks ahead of quarterly earnings reports this week.

In Hong Kong, the key Hang Seng Index edged up 31.98 points, or 0.26 per cent, to 12,252.11. Prices opened lower as investors took their cue from last week’s declines on Wall Street.