Markets are directionless today after a lacklustre morning. At midday, the TSE 300 is up seven points to 8,309.

Volume is soft at 80.4 million shares, and buyers hold a six to five edge over sellers. Winners hold a small edge over losers.

On a sector basis, nine of TSE’s 14 sub-indices are on the upside, led by media stocks and consumer products. Those sub-indices posting losses are only down modestly. Mixed economic news in the United States is cutting into early optimism.

Nortel Networks has returned to its familiar position atop the volume leader board. It is down 2% on 5.5 million shares. Gulf Canada continues to trade strongly, it’s up just 4¢ on 4 million shares.

The winners are a mixed bag, including Sherritt, Rogers, Cryptologic, Dynacare, Pivotal, Research in Motion and CP. The banks are also generally up, led by TD Bank and Royal Bank.

Certicom is taking a pounding again today, down 12% on 1.8 million shares, after it reported brutal results yesterday.

The big losers are a similarly heterogeneous collection, with Power Corp., Agrium, Patheon, Dupont, Molson, Teck and Theratechnologies all down.

In New York, the action has been far more convincing to the upside. The Dow Jones industrial average has gained 67 points to 11,128. The Nasdaq composite index is up 62 points to 2,217. The S&P 500 has gained 11 points to 1,278. A strong forecast from Xilinx is still boosting the techs. Oils are also getting boost from the OPEC meeting.

The CDNX is down seven points to 3,360. Volume is strong at 19.9 million shares. Energy stocks are strong, as are miners, but techs are weak. Wavve TeleCommunications is the top trader, down 42% to 5¢ on 2.7 million shares.