April’s positive jobs numbers are sending stock markets lower. At midday, the S&P/TSX index is down 97 points to 8,331.

In Canada, almost 50,000 new jobs were created last month, pushing down the jobless rate.

In the U.S., non-farm payrolls were also on the high side, and earlier totals were revised upward, too. The jobless rate declined in the U.S. pushing up the expected timing of interest rate hikes into the summer.

Toronto volume is average for a Friday at 133.4 million shares, with selling action ahead of the buying by a margin of almost three to one. Market breadth is very weak too, with losers outnumbering winners by about seven to three.

Techs are the only group avoiding the selloff today, gaining 0.5%.Everything else is down, as traders grapple with the impact of higher rates and very high oil prices.

Miners and materials are both down more than 2%, golds have dropped 3.7%, energy, telecoms, utilities and financials are all down sharply too.

The gold group is taking a big hit as traders dump that commodity and pile into US dollars. Placer Dome is down 4.4% as a result, Barrick has dropped 3%, and there is serious selling in names such as Cambior, Yamana Gold, Bema Gold and Blackrock Ventures.

Other miners and resources are very weak too, including Suncor Energy, Talisman Energy, Alcan, and Inco.

Financials are taking a heavy blow, too. Scotiabank is down 1.5%, Royal Bank is off 1.4%, as is Manulife Financial, and National Bank is about 1% lower.

Telecoms are another weak spot, with BCE down 1% and Telus dropping 2.4%. But, techs are generally holding up well. Nortel is back up another 1% in decent volume.

Cinram has jumped 7.6%, after it announced that first quarter profit jumped 105% to US27¢ per share. Open Text and Sierra Wireless are also higher up.

But the news isn’t good for all the techs, Descartes Systems has plunged 39% in heavy trading after it canned its CEO yesterday, and warned about earnings.

Hip Interactive is down 18% on 4.2 million shares after revising its previously announced earnings expectation down to the tune of $2.9 million after tax due to accounting errors recently uncovered and arising in the second and third quarters of the current year. The net earnings for the year are now expected to be in the range of 16¢ to 17¢ per share on a fully diluted basis. Hip also announced that its senior vice-president finance, video game distribution division, has had his relationship with Hip terminated effective immediately.

BCE Emergis is down 13.3% on news that BCE is selling its stake in the firm.

Other losers include Martinrea, which is down 7% on news that its earnings declined to $2.7 million in the first quarter.

Strong earnings news is bolstering Extendicare. It’s up 4.3% on news that it earned $28.3 million in Q1.

The list of gainers also includes First Calgary, Bombardier, Creo, Axcan Pharma and Bear Creek Energy.

In M&A news, StarPoint Energy has executed an agreement to acquire by way of an exempt takeover bid all of the issued and outstanding shares of a private Alberta oil and gas company for $16.5 million.

On the financing front, Sino-Forest is filing a final short form prospectus in connection with a public offering of 35 million Class A subordinate voting shares for gross proceeds of $92.75 million. The offering is being underwritten by Morgan Stanley Canada Limited.

In other earnings news, Ainsworth Lumber had quarterly operating earnings of $91.0 million for the first three months of 2004, compared with $16.2 million in the same period of 2003. Despite the fact that the company generated record operating earnings and EBITDA during the first three months of 2004, the company’s net income was negatively affected by a $106.2 million one-time cost associated with the refinancing of its long-term debt, and a $5.7-million foreign exchange loss. Ainsworth’s net loss during the quarter was $19.8 million, compared with net income of $26.1 million in the first quarter of 2003.

In New York the strong jobs news was also read as a big negative for stocks. The Dow Jones industrial average is down 29 points at 10,212. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index is faring better, adding nine points to 1,947.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index is also lower, down 27 points at midday to 1,621. Volume is solid at 29.2 million shares, led by Val Vista Energy. It is down 3¢ to 23¢ on 1.9 million shares.