Stocks are sliding a little this morning, as the latest U.S. economic data came in on the disappointing side. The Institute for Supply Management’s non-manufacturing index slipped to 58.6 in December from 60.1 in November. The news has the S&P/TSX composite index slumping nine points to 8,373.

Economists had forecast the measurement of activity in the U.S. service sector to come in at 61. The disappointing number has some pundits feeling that the U.S. recovery is set to slow.

In other economic news, new orders for U.S. factory goods sank in November, staging the largest drop in over half a year, the Commerce Departmen said.

Factory orders dropped 1.4% in November after rising 2.4% the previous month. The decline was close to Wall Street expectations of a drop of 1.5%

Toronto volume is very strong at 198.1 million shares, with the buying edging the selling by a margin of about four to three. However, market breadth is slightly negative, with losers outnumbering winners 57:55.

The companies that have benefited from the recovery story, such as golds and other miners, are being hard hit today. Consumer staples stocks and real estate are lower, too. However, there is continued strength in techs, health care and consumer discretionary stocks.

Nortel is leading the tech space higher with a 3% gain in strong trading of 19.6 million shares. Some nice words from analysts appear to be behind the boost.

Rogers Communications is also a big winner today, up more than 4% after announcing its outlook for the year yesterday.

BCE is flat with 1 million shares traded on news that the Ontario Superior Court of Justice has tossed out $1 billion shareholder suits filed against both Bell Canada International and BCE Inc.

Financial stocks remain big traders with investors mulling over merger scenarios, as well as pricing in the weaker economic picture. CIBC is down about 0.5%, followed by Scotiabank and Royal Bank. Manulife is up 0.5% however.

Mining shares are also seeing heavy action. Inco is down 1.1%, and there is weakness in Alcan. There is also heavy selling in CP Ships, CN Rail, Paramount, Fording, and Stelco.

Barrick is leading the gold group down, with a 1.6% slide. There is also weakness in Kinross, Apollo Gold, Crystallex, and Bema Gold.

There are winners in the resources though, with gains coming in Noranda, EnCana, Petro Canada, Jaguar Nickel, TVI Pacific, Gerdau AmeriSteel, Northern Orion Resources and Navigo Energy Trust.

In the health care group, there is profit taking in former winner, ConjuChem, but TLC has jumped 5.8%, and Labopharm is up 4.3%.

In New York, the impact of the weak ISM report has cracked some investors’ confidence, pushing the Dow Jones industrial average down 38 points at midday to 10,506. However, techs are holding up better, with the Nasdaq composite index adding two ticks to 2,049.

The S&P/TSX Venture index has dropped 10 points to sit at 1,771. Volume is decent at 42.8 million shares. IBI Corp. is leading the way, up a penny to 7¢ per share on more than four million shares traded.