Technology stocks continued to dog Canadian markets Tuesday morning, while disappointing economic news and higher oil prices plagued U.S. stocks. At midday, all markets were trading lower.

In Toronto, the S&P/TSX composite index was down 35.14 points or 0.41% to 8450.86; the TSX Venture Exchange was off 13.5 points or 0.86% to 1562.65.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was off 69.02 points or 0.67% to 10213.81; the tech-heavy Nasdaq was down 43.10 or 2.15% to 1963.56; while the S&P 500 had lost 10.21 or 0.91% to 1115.17.

The Canadian dollar was down 0.07 of a cent to US75.31¢.

On Bay Street, the main culprit were the tech stocks, down 2.52% as a group — once again lead by Nortel Networks Corp., which was off 16¢ to $5.71 and, as usual, the runaway most-active on the TSX. Also taking a hit were gold stocks, off 0.99%, and financials, down 0.71%. Among the most active in the latter sector were Bank of Nova Scotia, down 29¢ to $35.42; Manulife Financial Corp., off $1.03 to $53.14; and the Royal Bank of Canada, off 9¢ to $59.16.

U.S. markets, closed on Monday for the Independence Day holiday, were greeted Tuesday with rising oil prices and more gloomy economic news.

U.S. light crude rose after the weekend sabotage attacks on Iraqi oil pipelines cut exports. Crude prices opened up US66¢ at US$39.05 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude oil is a component of almost every sector of the economy, including manufacturing and transport, and higher oil prices immediately erode corporate profits.

Meanwhile, in the latest evidence that economic growth has started to ebb, the Institute for Supply Management’s non-manufacturing index fell to 59.9 in June from 65.2 in May. Wall Street analysts had been looking for a dip to 63.0. Any number in the survey above 50 indicates growth in services, which include everything from restaurants and hotels to banks and airlines, accounting for about 80 percent of the U.S. economy.

A harbinger of growth, new orders edged up to 62.4 from 61.3 and more companies said they intended to take on new workers — ISM’s employment index rose to 57.4 in June from 56.3 in May. Yet a separate report showed that while the number of planned layoffs had fallen in June, the level of planned hirings also declined. Employment research firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas said planned layoffs in the United States slipped to 64,343 in June, down from May’s 73,368.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei Stock Average of 225 issues slipped 66.44 points, or 0.58% to 11475.27 points.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index rose 31.97 points, or 0.26% to 12284.08.

London’s FTSE 100 index lost 28.2 points at 4375.1, Frankfurt’s DAX 30 gave up 1.26% while the Paris CAC 40 eased 0.8%.