By Jeff Sanford

(September 22 – 17:45 ET) – It was supposed to be judgement today as newspapers forecast nasty weather on the Toronto Stock Exchange this morning in the wake of the negative earnings warning from Intel, released late yesterday. Those worries seemed to be a bit premature. The TSE finished the day down, but only by a relatively insignificant 34.97 points.

Although the TSE did open down 239.77 points, it recovered steadily throughout the day.

Nevertheless. only five of 14 sub-indices finished the day in the black. Leading the way was consumer products which was up 2.41%. Surprisingly, industrial products, which contains Canada’s biggest tech stock Nortel, finished the day up a slight 0.31%.

On the downside, the oil and gas sector finished down 3.17%, presumably in reaction to U.S. President Clinton’s order to release 30 million barrels of crude from that country’s strategic petroleum reserves. Considering the U.S. consumes 9.7 million barrels of crude a day, it’s hard to say whether that order should have an effect on the price of crude.

Also down significantly were the conglomerates sector, 2.29% and financial services, 1.06%.

A general weakness in the market, though, was more obvious in the individual issues. Overall, 663 finished down while only 392 finished the day up. Total volume was a relatively lacklustre 124 million shares.

Among the most actives, Nortel surprised everyone by finishing the day ahead. It closed at $98.90, a gain of $1.45 after an intense selloff yesterday and in the after hours markets.

Although Bombardier announced yet more contracts it was taken down 55¢ to $23.85. Placer Dome finished the day up 40¢ at $13.80.

In oils, Petro Canada was hammered today. It lost $2.40 to close at $32.20, a drop of 6.94%. Talisman was also down a hefty 3.36% to lose at $51.80. Husky energy lost 3.73% to close at $14.20 and Canadian Natural resources was down 3.57%.

Both Celestica and Onex also got knocked around. They were both down over 4%, at $117.25 and $25.90, respectively. Research in Motion lost $7.75 to close down 6.3% at $115.25.

The CDNX finished the day down 9.29 points at 3607.90. Overall, 251 issues advanced, while 294 declined.

The loonie weakened Friday on news of currency intervention in the euro by G7 central bankers . G7 ministers meet in Prague this weekend where they’ll be talking about the weak euro while avoiding protesters. The ministers’ stated intention to step in and save the euro sent the loonie down to US67.07¢. That’s down from US67.27¢ at the close Thursday.

In the U.S., the Dow did well as investors rotated out of stocks and bought into old economy companies, which are looking like bargains right now. At the closing bell, the Dow was up 81 points at 10,847. Many of the multinationals in the index were also helped by the strengthening euro.

The Nasdaq composite, on the other hand, finished down slightly. It closed at 3,803, down 25 points.

The S&P 500 finished the day relatively flat at 1,448.71, down 0.34%.

Did we avoid the big meltdown? Perhaps, but it’s been a recent trend that when turmoil hits the markets late in the week and the market holds Friday, traders go home and ruminate over the weekend. They then come back Monday morning ready to sell, setting the stafe for an early week selloff.

Have a great weekend.