By James Langton

(February 27 – 13:00 ET) – Toronto stocks opened lower this morning and slipped further before powering higher. At midday the TSE 300 is up 16 points to 8,157.

Volume is light at 58 million shares, almost three to two in favour of buyers. Losers hold a slight edge over winners.

The split between sectors is about even. Financials, utilities and paper stocks are all up at midday. The downside is coming from industrials, miners and conglomerates.

Most of the sector moves today are moderate. Traders continue to be reluctant to move, with the market split over possible interest rate cuts this week.

TSE heavy hitter Nortel Networks is up slightly this morning in moderate trading. But techs in general aren’t enjoying a strong day, indeed the industrial sub-index is down. Poor sentiment continues to afflict the group, and it was exacerbated this morning when JDS Uniphase Corp. announced plans to cut 10% of its workforce to accommodate the economic slowdown.

JDS is down, as are Exfo Electro, Celestica, Sierra Wireless, Pivotal, Research in Motion and Siebel.

Today’s other big loser of is Bank of Montreal. BMO stock is down about 2.5% in heavy trading after the bank missed analyst expectations this morning. BMO blamed the shortfall on its wealth management division, which experienced slower revenue growth and higher expenses.

BMO’s misery is boosting the other big banks, though. Rather than being caught in BMO’s downdraft, Scotia, Royal Bank and CIBC are all rallying. The prospect of lower interest rates is generally helping the financials, too. Insurance giant Manulife Financial is also enjoying some strong buying action.

Other gainers today include Ballard Power, Veritas, Cameco, Abitibi and Rogers Communications.

In New York, stocks are split with the Dow Jones industrial average up and the techs down. The Dow is currently up about 52 points to 10,694. The Nasdaq composite index has dropped 26 ticks to 2,282. The S&P 500 is up four points to 1.272.

U.S. consumer confidence data came in weaker than expected, but traders still can’t decide if that spells rate cuts or just tough times ahead for the economy.

The CDNX is up for a change today, gaining 11 points to 3,097. Volume is strong at 20 million shares.

Oils are leading the way up with a little support from tech and minimal objections by miners. Tetratel Inc is the top trader, albeit down 24% to 38¢ on 2.5 million shares.