Stocks are putting in another lacklustre performance Tuesday. At midday the S&P/TSX index is down 13 points to 7,079.

Volume is on the weak side again today at 77.2 million shares, with buying ahead of selling by 19:17. Market breadth is evenly split between winners and losers.

Stocks opened on a down note, following negative analyst comments on semiconductors and weak economic news out of Germany. Beyond that, stocks have been trading around U.S. President Bush’s long-awaited speech about improving corporate responsibility.

Bush outlined a plan to implement stiffer penalties for corporate leaders who knowingly misrepresent their companies’ earnings. The president asked for a doubling of the maximum jail term for mail and wire fraud, and generally tougher sentencing guidelines for corporate officers who cheat investors.

Techs, telecoms and health care stocks are leading the way lower at midday. There’s also weakness in diversifieds, consumer stocks and industrials. Golds are very strong once again, up almost 4%. And, there’s a bit of buying in materials stocks.

Investor suspicion of techs and telecoms has those stocks slumping again today. BCE is leading the way, down 1%. But there’s also notable selling in Open Text, Cognos, Cognicase, Mosaic Group and Biovail.

With weakness in the techs, TD Bank is leading the financials lower, and Manulife Financial is lower, too. Bank of Nova Scotia is bucking that move, gaining 1% on the day. Royal bank is up a bit, too.

There’s also more moderate weakness throughout much of the rest of the market. With drops in names such as Cott, SouthernEra Resources, Hurricane Hydrocarbons and Fording.

Golds continue to feed off all the investor worry. Barrick and Placer Dome are powering higher, up 2.6% and 3.4% respectively. There are also gains in TVX Gold, Goldcorp, Richmont Mines, Glamis Gold and Bema Gold. The big winner is High River Gold, which is now halted, news pending, up 13.5% on 2.4 million shares traded.

Other gainers include Co-Steel, which announced before the bell that it would be beating previous earnings guidance.

Masonite International is up nicely, after revealing that it will achieve earnings per share in the range of 40¢ to 42¢ for the second quarter, which will exceed consensus analyst estimates of 33¢ per share.

Not so happily, Basis100 says that it expects to fall short of its most recent second quarter guidance for revenue by up to $4 million and expects, as a result, to incur an EBITDA loss instead of the positive EBITDA of up to $1.6 million previously forecast. The primary reason for the revenue shortfall in the second quarter is licence fee revenue from contracts that will not close in time.

In other news, EnCana is seeking potential buyers for its indirect 70% interest in the Cold Lake pipeline system and its indirect 100% interest in the Express pipeline system.

In New York, markets have been thinly-traded and choppy all morning. At midday, the Dow Jones industrial average is down 26 points to 9,249. The S&P 500 has dropped seven points to 970. The Nasdaq composite index has lost six ticks to 1,400.

The S&P/TSX Venture index is enjoying the flight to golds, gaining 11 points to 1156. Volume is on the light side at 13.7 million shares. Aspley Management Group is the top trader, gaining 20¢ to 33¢ on 821,000 shares.