Friday’s opening momentum didn’t last long, as many traders decided they really don’t want to be long over the weekend. As a result, at midday the S&P/TSX index is down 33 points to 7,193.

Volume is improved over recent days at 88.4 million shares, with the selling action outweighing the buying by 10 to nine. Losers are also edging winners by almost seven to six.

Telecom stocks are leading the way down once again, off by about 2.4%. But the weakness is pretty broad-based, with selling in sectors such as consumer stocks, energy, financials, industrials, diversifieds and utilities.

Golds are again the only real source of buying, but even they aren’t up as much as 1%.

Telus is leading the way down today, dropping 6.5% in active trading. BCE is weaker, too, down 1.3%.

The financials are down today, but it’s not the banks to blame this time. The banks are trading actively, and holding modest gains, with Scotia up 0.4%, and Royal and TD both more or less flat to slightly higher at midday. The weakness is on the insurance side, where Manulife is down 1.3% in active trading. Sun Life has dropped 1.6%.

Other losers include energy plays such as Hurricane Hydrocarbons, Precision Drilling, Thunder Energy and Husky Energy.

Bombardier is down 1.4% in active trading, despite winning a new contract in the UK today. There are also losses in names such as Moore Corp., Biovail, Agrium and Molson.

Gold stocks are the bulls’ only friends today, with Barrick leading the way on the strength of a 1.5% gain. Bema Gold, Agnico Eagle, Echo Bay Mines and Paramount Resources are all up notably.

Other winners include Magna International, Westaim, Hemosol, Cognos and Ketch Energy.

In earnings news, Aber Diamond’s net loss for the latest quarter ended totaled $700,000, compared with net earnings of $85.3 million a year earlier. The prior year’s results include a $147.7 million gain from the sale of Aber’s share in the Snap Lake property in February 2001.

On the financing front, TransAlta will issue US$300 million of 10-year senior unsecured notes. Net proceeds from the offering will be used for general corporate purposes, including the repayment of indebtedness and the financing of the corporation’s long-term investment plan. Merrill Lynch & Co. and Salomon Smith Barney are the co-leads for the offering.

In New York, some early rebound momentum soon gave way to the realization that there really is no fundamental reason to buy today. At midday, the Dow Jones industrial average is down 113 points to 9,319. The S&P 500 has dropped 11 points to 995. Nasdaq has lost 12 ticks to 1,453.

Even the small caps aren’t finding much comfort today, as the flight to safety in gold remains modest. At midday, the S&P/TSX Venture index is down two ticks to 1,192. Volume is very weak at 13.9 million shares. Nevertheless, American Bonanza Gold is the top trader, down a penny to 19¢ on volume of 523,500 shares.