Stocks are trading in a narrow range at midday, as traders await a rate decision from the U.S. Federal Reserve Board.

The TSE 300 is down four points to 7,075.

Volume is light at 67 million, with buyers holding a five to four edge on sellers. However, losers are ahead of winners nine to seven.

This morning’s losers include oils, down 2.5%, pipelines, conglomerates and consumer stocks. There’s upside resistance primarily from techs, with modest buying in real estate, utilities and golds.

The techs are getting a boost from yesterday’s strong revenue in benchmark stock, Cisco Systems. This is boosting Nortel Networks, Celestica, C-Mac and Geac. Bell Canada International is up, too.

Financials are strong with buying in Royal Bank, Bank of Montreal and Bank of Nova Scotia. Mutual fund giant Investors Group is also attracting unusual interest, up 5.4% on strong volume. On the flip side, C.I. is down 3.4%.

The energy stocks continue sell off, with commodity prices facing an uncertain future. At midday, Petro Canada is down in active trading, as is Suncor.

There are also slides in Imperial Oil, Penn West, Pan Canadian, Husky Energy, Canadian Natural Resources and Nexen.

Similar conditions are prevailing stateside. Techs are up a bit, the broader market is sliding. At midday, the Dow Jones industrial average is off 11 points to 9,430. The Nasdaq composite index is up six ticks to 1,799. The S&P 500 is down a point to 1,102.

The CDNX is down 16 points to 2,956. Volume is average at 13.3 million shares.

Techs are up, but mines and oils are down. Zimtu Techs Inc is the leading trader, flat at 2¢ per share on 613,500 shares.