Stocks are trading in a narrow range without much direction Wednesday, in the absence of any economic news to distract traders from the looming war against Iraq. The S&P/TSX composite index is up 11 points to 6,450.

Volume has slacked off a bit, coming in at 82.5 million shares. The selling volume has almost doubled the buying action. However, market breadth is close to even, with losers edging winners 23:21.

The TSX sectors are evenly split today. Tech stocks and health care stocks are notably weaker, both groups are down about 2.6%. However, telecoms are stronger, up 1.4%. There are also modest gains in financials, real estate and utilities. Most other groups are flat.

Quebecor World continues to lead the way lower, down 3.5% on 3.7 million shares, as the market reacts to the surprise resignation of its CEO on Tuesday.

Nortel is providing lots of the selling volume, dropping 1.4% with 10.4 million shares changing hands. Other volatile tech names are joining Nortel on the downside, with selling in Solectron, Celestica, ATI, Cognos and Research in Motion.

Aerospace contractor CAE is down 10% on fears that Canada’s non-participation in the war against Iraq could hurt its prospects for U.S. military contracts.

There is also weakness in MDS, Quebecor, Bombardier and Petro Canada.

Financial firms are leading the way higher, after U.S. brokerage firm, Bear Stearns, reported much stronger earnings thanks to good debt trading results. Royal Bank is up 0.9%, Scotia and CIBC are up in active trading, too. Insurance holding company, Fairfax Financial, has gained 3.4%.

There is also strength in a selection of firms including EnCana, Alcan, Telus, First Calgary Petroleums, DuPont Canada, Agrium, Corus and Alimentation Couche-Tard.

In earnings news, Sceptre Investment Counsel has reported first quarter earnings of $982,000, down from $1,585,000 for the same period last year. Revenue for the first quarter was $6,827,000, compared with $8,833,000 for the first quarter last year.

Also, TLC Vision has recorded charges totalling $27.8 million resulting from the writedown of intangible assets and good will. Including these charges, its net loss was $39.3 million in its latest quarter. For the same three-month period in 2001, the company recorded a net loss of $35 million.

In New York, stocks have been down much of the morning. Traders are bracing for war, and also responding to news of an alleged accounting fraud at HealthSouth Corp. Trading volume has been relatively light with the Dow Jones industrial average down 46 points to 8,148. The S&P 500 has shed five points to 862. The Nasdaq composite index is off 21 points to 1,380.

The S&P/TSX Venture index is down just a point to 1,061. Volume remains on the light side at 15 million shares. Once again the top trader is Spider Resources, up 1¢ to 10¢ on almost 1.6 million shares.