By James Langton

(August 31 – 13:00 EST) – The sellers are back today. The TSE 300
index is down about 59 points so far, on decent volume of 52 million
shares. Decliners are ahead of the advancers about 9:7. The selling
volume is almost double the buying.

Interest rate concerns in Europe and the U.S. are slugging the
markets. So is the weakness of the U.S. dollar. A set of discouraging
economic data out of Japan is damping expectations of the Asian
recovery, and it too is sparking some selling. Recovery in Asia
is seen as a critical support as the U.S. cools off.

Golds are the only sector showing any strength today. They are up
about 2%, as traders worldwide return to the old-school hedge.
Placer and Barrick are both up.

Just about everything else is selling, led by the financials and
industrial products. The Canadian tech leaders are driving the selling,
joined by the majority of the Canadian blue chips. All the banks are
down, led by Royal, which has lost $1.20. BCE is down.
ATI Tecnology and Nortel are selling strongly.
Corel is giving up most of yesterday’s gains.

One tech firm, Zi Corp., is resisting the tech losses.
The firm, which is wiring up the Chinese school system to the Internet,
is up 75¢, to $13.55.

Montreal is mimicking the TSE. It is down about 30 points on its
banks and industrials. Miners are showing the only resistance to
the bears. Alberta is off five points, and Vancouver is down a
single point.

Things aren’t much friendlier for the bulls in New York. The Dow is
selling strongly and accelerating into the afternoon session, off 130
points at midday. Nasdaq has dropped 41 points and the S&P is down
18.