Stocks are mixed Thursday, as many traders remain preoccupied with the apparent start of the war in Iraq. U.S. forces in Kuwait began a heavy artillery barrage across the Iraqi border, after oil wells began to burn in southern Iraq.

At midday, the S&P/TSX composite index is unchanged at 6.453. Volume is average for recent days at 81.1 million shares, with the buying outpacing the selling about 20:17. Market breadth is almost dead even.

The action is split along sector lines. There are modest gains in golds, energy, utilities and consumer stocks, but nothing has moved as much as 1% on the upside.

The downside is similarly modest. Diversified stocks are lower, as are techs, and materials. But there are no huge price swings. Traders appear to be sitting tight, awaiting war news.

One firm that is recovering from yesterday is CAE. The aerospace firm has gained 13% on huge volume of 12.3 million shares.

After less than one day, the firm withdrew its announced plan to raise about $100 million US by selling convertible debentures, citing “potential dilution in CAE’s share capital.”

The energy stocks are heading higher, following rising oil prices on word of oil field fires in Iraq. Petro-Canada is up 1% in active trading. The firm reported that its president, Norman McIntyre, has decided to retire in the first quarter of 2004.

The banks remain busy traders, with Bank of Montreal leading the way higher. CIBC and Royal Bank are more or less flat. Fairfax Financial has gained 3%.

Quebecor World is recovering, too. It is up 2.5% in active trading on more than 1 million shares traded. Parent company Quebecor is up almost 6%. Other gainers include Telus, Counsel Corp. and Celestica.

Nortel is leading the way on the downside, dropping 2.7% on decent volume of 11.7 million shares. Rogers Wireless is joining it on the downside.

Most of the other notable losers hail from old economy sectors, with paper firms such as Norske Skog, Abitibi, and Domtar all down. Bombardier is weaker, as is retailer, Metro.

Nickel miner Inco has dropped 3.2% on news that the results of its recently completed feasibility study for the Voisey’s Bay project reveals higher than expected costs. The total capital cost estimate for all four parts of the initial phase of the Voisey’s Bay project is $776 million, or about 14% above the prefeasibility study estimates of $680 million.

In other business news, Penn West Petroleum reported that net income in the fourth quarter increased by 193% to $61.9 million from the fourth quarter of 2001. Net income of $158.4 million for 2002 included a provision of $4.5 million for unrealized foreign exchange losses.

Goldcorp says that it has purchased 2 million units of Bioteq Environmental Technologies at a price of 50¢ per unit. Each unit consists of one common share and one non-transferable common share purchase warrant. Upon closing of this transaction, Goldcorp will own 8.6% of Bioteq. Assuming Goldcorp exercises all of its warrants, the company will own 15.9% of Bioteq.

In New York, stocks opened sharply lower as traders digested the start of the hostilities in Iraq.

Stocks have since recovered their triple digit losses, and the Dow Jones industrial average is now down just 48 points to 8,218.

The S&P 500 has dropped six ticks to 868. The Nasdaq composite index is down nine points to 1,388.

The S&P/TSX Venture index is nine points lower at midday to 1054. Volume remains light at 16.4 million shares, led by 1.6 million shares traded in Spider Resources. The stock is flat at 11¢.