An earnings warning from Finnish wireless giant Nokia Oyj has cast a shadow over markets today.

At midday, the TSE 300 is down 94 points to 7,997.

Volume has picked up, with about 83.5 million shares crossing the tape so far. The tone is decidedly negative, with down volume outweighing up volume by about three to one. Losers outnumber winners two to one.

Gold is the only real bright spot today, as investors flee for safety. Energy stocks, transports and pipelines are up a bit, too. Almost everything is down.

The Nokia news is hanging heaviest around the necks of the techs. Tech hardware stocks are down almost 6%. Miners are notably weak, off almost 3%. The consumer and industrial products groups are both weak. Financials are down a bit, too, led by the insurers.

Nortel Networks is leading the way lower today, down about 7% to just $17.19 on volume of 6.3 million shares. The Nokia news is hurting, as is the mounting negative sentiment toward the firm.

A slew of techs are following Nortel into the darkness. Celestica, Pivotal, Sierra Wireless, C-MAC, Research in Motion, Mindready, Mosaid and Zi Corp. are all tanking.

There’s heavy volume in Rogers Communications after the firm announced its intention to buy back all the outstanding class B restricted voting shares of Rogers Wireless.

The company proposes to exchange each Rogers Wireless share for 1.1 Rogers class B non-voting shares. Currently, Rogers owns about 52% of Rogers Wireless. In response, Rogers is down 4.7% on 3.3 million shares, while Rogers Wireless is up better than 19% on 1.9 million shares.

Other winners today include Barrick Gold, Placer Dome, Microcell, Co-Steel, Trican Well Service, Theratechnologies and World Heart.

Transat is up almost 4% after reporting strong second quarter results.

Andres Wines has gained almost 3% on news of a proposed buyback of 10% of its non-voting shares and 5% of its voting shares.

In New York, the story is much the same as in Toronto. Nokia’s news is weighing on the market in general, and techs in particular.

The Dow Jones industrial average is off 103 points to 10,818. The Nasdaq composite has dropped 51 points to 2,119. The S&P 500 is off 15 points to 1,239.

The CDNX is joining the selling, down just seven points to 3,357. Volume is strong at 20.8 million shares. Techs are the weak spot here, with oils down a bit, and mines up. Betacom Corp is the top trader, up 3% to 72¢ on 1.7 million shares.