Trading in Toronto stocks was mixed Friday morning.

At midday, the S&P/TSX index is more or less unchanged at 7, 670.

Volume is strong at 91.4 million shares, with buying ahead of the selling by about 23:17. However, market breadth is negative, with losers outnumbering winners by 25:22.

With such a flat index, the market is split between sectors. Golds are bounding ahead, up 4.4%. There’s also strength in energy stocks, materials, industrials and utilities. However, techs, telecoms and financials are all weaker once again.

Ongoing worries about the health of the tech and telecom businesses, and their effect on the financial firms that have bankrolled them, continues to overhang the market.

The latest casualty is CIBC, down about 2.6% so far today, in heavy trading. On Thursday, the bank raised its loan loss provisions, in part due to exposure to Teleglobe.

Royal and Scotia are weaker too. TD Bank is about flat, and Sun Life and Manulife are stronger once again.

Tech stocks are facing selling pressure again, dragging the bank’s with them. Nortel Networks is falling further into penny stock territory, down another 4.5% on 5.3 million shares, to just $4.71 per share.

Vivendi Universal is down more than 7%. Research in Motion, Telus, CGI Group, Magna International and Ballard Power are all weak, too.

Against this, the gold stocks are up again, as gold prices breach US$307 an ounce. Barrick has gained another 2%, and Placer dome is even stronger, up 2.7%. TVX Gold and Bema Gold are notably strong too.

Bombardier is showing the effects of winning more than $1 billion in rail contracts. It is up 2.2% in active trading.

There are also gains in K2 Energy, Precision Drilling, Rio Alto, Tesco, Extendicare, Hurricane Hydrocarbons and CCL.

In business news, Noranda has completed the public offering of 22.5 million units for total proceeds of $225 million. The underwriting syndicate comprised CIBC World Markets Inc. and Scotia Capital Inc., as co-leads, and RBC Dominion Securities Inc., TD Securities Inc., BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc., National Bank Financial Inc. and Trilon Securities Corporation.

Also, Enbridge reported earnings for the first quarter of 2002 of $113.1 million, compared with $83.5 million for the same period in 2001. The strong results reflect higher contributions from energy transportation operations, equity earnings from the acquisition of CLH. These positive factors are partially offset by lower earnings from energy distribution resulting from weather that was significantly warmer than normal.

In New York, the sellers definitely have the upper hand after a weak jobs report cooled hopes for an economic recovery. The Dow Jones industrial average is down 115 points to 9,977, back below 10,000. The S&P has dropped 12 points to 1,072. Nasdaq is down 32 points to 1,612.

The S&P/TSX Venture index is stronger at midday, up seven points to 1162. Volume is robust at 19 million shares. Odyssey Resources is the top trader, up 2¢ to 32¢ on 693,500 shares.