Markets are slumping at midday. The TSE 300 is down 69 points to 7,555.

Volume is dreadful, at 48.2 million shares, with sellers outnumbering buyers more than two to one. Losers have a three to two edge on winners.

The only area of strength on the TSE today is biotechnology today, up 2%, and taking the consumer products sub-index up about 1%.

Everything else is flat to down. Financials are very weak today, led by an almost 2% drop in the banks. Golds are off more than 2.5%. Miners, oils and pipelines are all down notably too. A general negative attitude toward the timing of a global economic recovery seems to be behind the weakness.

CIBC is leading the way down, off 2.5% in heavy trading. The bank announced that it has sold its Guernsey business to the Guernsey subsidiaries of The Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son Limited, effective immediately.

The bank says that the transaction is consistent with CIBC Wealth Management’s strategy to focus on supporting its North American client base, and growing its Caribbean and Asian operations, and is also consistent with CIBC’s overall strategy to focus on core businesses that add value to shareholders and customers. But the move is apparently sending worrying signals to investors.

The other banks are weak, too, with Bank of Nova Scotia and Royal Bank following CIBC on the loss leaders board.

Firms are also being punished for weak earnings. Bell Canada International is down about 7% in heavy trading. There are some heavy losses in Corus, Thomson Corp., Alliance Atlantis, QLT, Placer Dome, Rio Alto and Intertape Polymer. PanCanadian Petroleum and Alberta Energy are leading the energy firms back down.

There’s some slight upside in tech, with Nortel Networks gaining less than 1% in moderate trading. It is following Alcatel up, after the French networking giant pledged to layoff a load of workers in response to large reported losses.

Nortel’s old parent, BCE, is up today. It is joined by Pivotal, MDC and Aber Diamond. Biotechs are strong, QLT notwithstanding, with notable gains in Biovail and World Heart.

Biomira Inc. says that for the six months ended June 30, it saw a consolidated net loss from operations of $22.9 million or 45¢ a share compared with $22.4 million or 47¢ a share, for the same period in 2000.

Inex Pharmaceuticals net loss was $5.84 million (23¢ a share) during the second quarter. This net loss brought the year-to-date loss to $8.82-million (35¢ a share), which is in line with management’s expectations.

Also, Bowater said its net income for the second quarter was $18.6 million, or 36¢ per diluted share on sales of $585.2 million. These results compare with net income of $33.7 million, or 63¢ a share on sales of $607.6 million in the second quarter of 2000. Included in the 2001 net income is a $19.4 million gain related to asset sales, and an $11 million loss resulting from foreign currency changes. Before these two items, net income was 20¢ per diluted share.

In New York, markets have been grinding lower today. The Dow Jones industrial average is down 113 points to 10,292. The Nasdaq composite has shed 19 points to 1,965. The S&P 500 is off seven ticks to 1,184.

The CDNX is joining the slide today, too, down seven points to 3,074. Volume is weak again today at 10.6 million shares.

Techs are leading the way down, with mines and oils on the upside. Genoil Inc is the top trader, down 10% to 26¢ on 653,646 shares.