Stocks opened lower Wednesday thanks to another sales warning from technology company Advanced Micro Devices and credit concerns in Europe. Since then, they’ve endured a choppy session gyrating up and down throughout the morning.

At midday, the S&P/TSX composite index is down 24 points to 6,989. Volume has been on the light side at 80.1 million shares, with the action almost evenly split between the buyers and sellers. Market breadth is definitely negative, however, with losers outpacing the winners by a margin of 17 to 11.

On a sector basis there’s broad weakness in categories such as health care, telecoms, financials, energy and consumer stocks. The golds are down, too, as the price of the precious metal slumps.

Oddly, tech stocks are the strongest group on the upside, as traders do a little bargain hunting. Utilities are up a bit, too.

EnCana is leading the way down today, as oil prices slump. It is off 1% in active trading. Canadian Natural resources is bucking the trend with a bounce back today.

Golds are seeing some of their flight to safety ebb away. Names such as Kinross, Glamis and TVX Gold are all weaker. Barrick and Placer are about flat.

The financial issues continue to suffer credit worries. TD Bank and Royal bank are both down in active trading. Scotia is up, however. Investors Group is down 3.5%.

There’s also selling in a broad selection of names including CN Rail, Cogeco Cable, Biovail, Saputo, Ballard Power and CCL Industries.

Against this, some of the beaten up techs are finding buyers today. Exfo Electro is up smartly in active trading. There’s also buying in Research in Motion, Zarlink, Nortel Networks and ATI, as traders ignore AMD’s latest woes.

There are also some gains in old school names such as Methanex, Fording, Bombardier, Sobey’s and CP Ships.

There’s been some small scale M&A activity this morning. F Metro has purchased the assets of Grossiste Sue Shang Inc., a convenience and small food stores wholesaler in Quebec.

Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. has picked up 16.5% of Pacific Minerals Inc. shares, with warrants that would push its stake to 28.4%.

Also, Bow Valley Energy Ltd. is buying Boundary Creek Resources for $2.40 cash per share.

In New York, traders have been active, pushing through their pre-holiday positions. The Dow Jones industrial average has been down more than 100 points and up as much as 50, but at midday it is down 28 points to 8.979. The S&P 500 is off four ticks to 944. The Nasdaq composite index is down two points to 1,356.

The slump in golds has the S&P/TSX Venture index down 14 points at midday to 1,137. Volume is on the light side at 12.2 million shares. American Bonanza Gold is the top trader, flat at 7¢ per share on 495,000 shares.