With a long weekend looming in the U.S., markets are predictably subdued today. U.S. traders have Monday off for Memorial Day, and many of the commodity and fixed-income markets are closing early today.

At midday, the S&P/TSX composite index up 14 points to 8,357. Volume is decent at 141.8 million shares, thanks to lots of merger-inspired action in the gold sector. The buying volume is trumping the selling by an eight to five margin. However, market breadth is negative, with losers outnumbering winners handily, 30:23.

Most sectors aren’t moving much today, even the hot trading gold sector is down just 0.35% on balance. There are some gains in real estate, tech and financials. Industrials, miners and energy trusts are weak though.

The gold group is seeing feverish trading today after two U.S. firms launched separate takeover bids worth a combined $3.76 billion at two firms that are heading down the aisle themselves, Wheaton River Minerals and Iamgold. Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp. has offered $2.56-billion for Wheaton River, and Golden Star Resources wants Iamgold for $1.21-billion. Wheaton River and Iamgold had planned to hook up to become Axiom Gold.

All the action has Wheaton River up a little on an incredible 31.4 million shares traded. Iamgold has moved more impressively, climbing almost 3% with 11.6 million shares traded. Golden Star, which also trades on the TSX, is down 7.5% on 3.6 million shares, with the news.

The action is spreading throughout the gold sector, with Newmont Mining down in heavy trading, and Crystallex has jumped 3.6%.

Also in the gold group, Cambior and Sequoia have signed a formal merger agreement that will see Sequoia effectively become a wholly owned subsidiary of Cambior. Under the formal merger agreement, Sequoia shareholders may elect to receive either a cash consideration of 60¢ for each share of Sequoia or one Cambior common share for each 6.3 Sequoia shares.

The other stock that’s seeing some heavy pre-holiday volume is beaten up Bombardier. It is down another 8.2% today on 15.4 million shares traded, as traders continue to punish it for its yesterday’s announced quarterly loss.

The financials are busy today, too, with traders dumping Royal Bank, it is down almost 1%, in favour of Scotiabank, Bank of Montreal and TD Bank which are all up by about 1% in active volume. Manulife is stronger, but CIBC is down a little.

Nortel looks to be ending the week on an up note. It is gaining 1.1% in decent volume. And, there is buying in Open Text, Stratos Global and Patheon.

Other winners today include energy giant, EnCana, and names such as Canadian Natural Resources, Fording, Westaim, International Forest and Fairmont Hotels.

There’s not blind buying in the resources though. Alcan, Suncor, Inco, and Noranda are all down. There is some selling in Allstream, Kingsway and Extendicare.

In earnings news, Dorel is maintaining its current reduced guidance for 2004 of earnings per share of between US$3.12 and US$3.22. For the first quarter, earnings were US$19.6 million, compared with US$19.2 million for the first quarter of 2003.

Hip Interactive reported net earnings were $9.6 million compared with $11.0 million in 2003.

In other business news, BCE reported that a lawsuit was filed yesterday in Delaware against BCE and 10 former directors and officers of Teleglobe Inc. and certain subsidiaries. The lawsuit alleges breach of an alleged financing commitment of BCE toward the debtors, misrepresentation by BCE, and breach of fiduciary duty. The plaintiffs seek an unspecified amount of damages. BCE says that it strongly believes that the claims are without merit and it intends to vigorously defend its position.

In New York, the volume is light, and the action indifferent. The Dow Jones industrial average is down about 20 points at midday to 10,185. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index is down less than a full point to 1,984.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index has also dropped just two ticks to 1597. Volume is average at almost 26 million shares, led by Spider Resources Inc. It has moved 1.5 million shares, in sliding just half a cent to 16.5¢ per share.