Stocks are trading in a narrow range Wednesday as traders await significant news from the war in Iraq. The S&P/TSX composite index is down 11 points to 6,374.

Volume is on the light side at 87.3 million shares, with the selling outpacing the buying by a 17:14 margin. Market breadth is evenly split between winners and losers.

On a sector basis, it looks like the flight to safety bid is back. Consumer stocks are up a bit, as are golds.

There is negative action in techs, real estate and a few other categories, but most moves are modest.

With the market so subdued, there aren’t a lot of big moves taking place under the surface either. The banks continue to dominate trading, with CIBC down about 2% in active trading. Scotia is 0.7% lower on decent volume.

Bombardier is sliding, down 1%. Nortel is leading the techs lower, with a 1% slide of its own. There is selling in firms such as CAE, DuPont Canada, Cognos, Angiotech, Riverside Forest Products and Paramount Resources.

The golds are a bit higher, with Placer Dome enjoying a 2.3% gain at midday.

Other gains are coming in stocks such as First Calgary Petroleums, Ivanhoe Mines, Niko Resources, Cinram, Bennett Enviro, and BW Technologies.

Molson is leading consumer stocks higher, with a 2.4% gain.

Even the flow of business news is slight today. GTC Transcontinental Group, the owner of Investment Executive, today reaffirmed it will meet its targets this year, despite weakness in the advertising market. The firm reiterated earnings per share guidance of $3.20 to $3.35 for 2003, which represents an increase of 8% to 14% over 2002.

In New York, traders are glued to the TV screens waiting for news from Iraq. In the meantime, the Dow Jones industrial average has slipped 29 points to 8,251. The S&P 500 has dropped two ticks to 873, and the Nasdaq composite index is up three points to 1394.

The S&P/TSX Venture index is up one point and a half to 1044. Volume remains weak at 15.1 million shares. Spider Resources is the top trader once again, down 2¢ to 10¢ on 475,600 shares traded.