U.S. traders are selling stocks and buying turkeys this morning as pre-Thanksgiving profit-taking grips markets on both sides of the border.

At midday, the TSE 300 is down 40 points to 7,341. Volume is more moderate at 80 million shares, with sellers ahead of buyers by more than two to one.

Losers outnumber winners by about 20:17.

There’s broad-based selling in the market today. Techs are particularly weak, as are pipelines, energy stocks and financials. However, while most sectors are down, the slides aren’t large. There are gains in mines, golds and utilities.

Nortel Networks is leading the techs lower again, down 3.6%. Celestica, C-Mac, Certicom, JDS Uniphase, Research in Motion, 724 Solutions, Wi-Lan and Microcell are all notably weaker.

Many blue chips are marked for sale today. Bombardier is down 3% in active trading. Royal Bank is down 1%, leading the financials lower. Other losers today include CIBC, Air Canada, CP Ships and Utility Corp.

On the upside, BCE is stronger on active volume. There are gains in valuation stories such as Stelco, Co-Steel, Meridian Gold and Ultra Petroleum. Biotechs such as Inex and Labopharm are up, as are Hemosol and CAE.

In earnings news, Indigo Books & Music is reporting a consolidated net loss for the second quarter of $31.3 million, as compared with a net loss of $7.8 million in the second quarter last year. This loss is primarily due to restructuring and other charges relating to store closures and other costs associated with the merger. It is anticipated that further store closures and other costs related to the merger will be incurred during the remainder of the year.

Also, YMG reported a net loss from continuing operations of $1,558,000, compared with net income of $670,000 for the same quarter of 2000. The loss is being partly attributed to realized and unrealized losses of $558,000 recorded on its investments during the quarter. It also wrote off goodwill of $930,000 relating to its acquisition of Ultravest Management Corp.

In New York, traders are closing out positions for an extended holiday. At midday, the Dow Jones industrial average is down 82 points to 9,819. The Nasdaq composite index has dropped 22 ticks to 1,858. The S&P 500 has surrendered nine points to 1,134. Markets are off their intra-day lows, but the action is rather mellow.

The CDNX is down three points to 3,061. Volume is active at 14.2 million shares.

Techs are the source of trouble today, with mines and oils posting modest gains on the day. Ibi Corp. is the top trader, flat at 4¢ on more than 1.1 million shares traded.