Stocks have been through a choppy trade Thursday morning, only to show virtually no movement overall. At midday the S&P/TSX index is down just two points to 7,019.

Volume has been on the light side at just 81.9 million shares, with selling edging the buying by a margin of three to two. Losers outnumber winners five to four.

Techs are back under pressure this morning. But there’s also weakness in golds, materials and discretionary consumer stocks. But consumer staples are higher, as are financials and health care names.

Losing some of the flight to quality bid has gold stocks Placer Dome and Barrick down at midday. There’s also weakness in smaller players, Kinross, Bema Gold and Glamis Gold.

Despite some early bargain hunting action the tech are down again today. Nortel Networks has dropped 5.5% to just above the $2 per share mark on more than 8 million shares. Research in Motion and Ballard Power are also down notably. Other losers include Intertape Polymer, BCE and Tesma.

TD Bank and CIBC are leading the financials higher at midday, both up about 3% in active trading. There are also gains in Scotiabank and Royal Bank.

Other gainers include beaten up tech names such as CGI Group, ATI Technologies, and GSI Lumonics. And, there are gains in Methanex, Trican Well Service and X-Cal Resources.

In financing news, Nexfor has increased its planned debt issue to US$250 million issue from the US$200 million amount previously announced. Closing is scheduled to occur on July 2. The underwriting group consists of Goldman, Sachs & Co., Credit Suisse First Boston, Merrill Lynch & Co., UBS Warburg and Trilon International Inc.

In New York the trade has followed the same volatile path, with early buying giving way to selling, which is now ameliorating. At midday, the Dow Jones industrial average is still down 53 points however to 9,068. The S&P 500 has dropped five points to 969. The Nasdaq composite has lost five ticks to 1,424.

The renewed pressure on the golds is hitting the small caps, too. The S&P/TSX Venture index is down five points to 1164. Volume is weak there too at less than 13 million shares. American Bonanza Gold remains the top trader, flat at 20¢ on 757,000 shares.