Toronto stocks are being led lower today by weakness in financial and mining issues. At midday, The S&P/TSX Composite Index is down 19 points at 7,763.

The mining index is off 1.4%, after Inco issued a third-quarter profit warning after the market close on Wednesday. Inco shares are down 60¢ to $40.65.

The heavily-weighted financial services index is down 0.6%.

Financial stocks are sluggish following a seven-session winning streak that saw all of Canada’s biggest banks record 52-week highs.

TD is down or 1.2%, while Bank of Montrealis off 0.7%.

The TSX gold sub-index is up 1.2% as gold futures rose a little more than US$1an ounce.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index is bucking the down trend. It’s up six points to 1,433.29.

On Wall Street, markets fell as IBM and Caterpillar, both Dow components, disappointed investors with their earnings reports.

IBM shares fell as its quarterly revenues came in below expectations and the company warned that technology had not bounced back.

Caterpillar shares dropped after it reported earnings that narrowly missed analysts’ expectations.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 44 points at 9,758..

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite Index is up less than a point at 1,939. The broader S&P 500 is also up less than a point at 1,047.19.

The Canadian dollar has soared over the US76¢ level for the first time in almost 10 years. The loonie was up 0.69 of a cent to to US76.09¢ — its highest level since January 1994.

Investors generally welcomed economic data showing that inflation remains in line with forecasts, U.S. factory output posted its biggest gain since April 2000 and the number of Americans filing first-time claims for unemployment insurance fell to the lowest level since early February.