By James Langton

(November 29 – 13:00 ET) – Tech stocks are weak again today, keeping market sentiment gloomy. The TSE 300 is down 39 points to 8,886.

Volume is soft again at just 53 million shares, about three to two in favour of sellers. Losers outnumber winners 10 to seven.

Although techs and utilities are having the biggest drag on the market, golds are down the most, off 2%. Miners are notably weak, too. Media stocks and pipelines are the strongest upside players.

Nortel Networks is the top trader, but it’s down 10¢ on almost 3 million shares. Other techs sliding in its wake include the usual suspects, Research in Motion, JDS Uniphase, Descartes Systems, Tundra Semi, Telus and Angiotech.

A number of the blue chips are weak today, including Bombardier, BCE and Canadian Tire. Barrick is leading the golds lower. Gulf Canada and CAE are also down in active trading.

There’s just not much committed buying in today’s broadly weak market. A few tech names are still up at midday, including Alcatel, Pivotal, Sierra Wireless, and Janna. Old economy names including Potash, GM and Chum are up, too.

Among the financials, Manulife is notably higher today, driving up all the insurers. The banks are generally weaker, as fears concerning their exposure to tech loans continue to linger, and yesterday’s post-election rally wears off.

In business news, Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp. is mulling its future and has hired McDonald Investments Inc. as its financial advisor. The company will consider such options as “mergers, acquisitions or divestitures.”

Suzy Shier Ltd. said its third quarter net earnings reached 15¢ a share, up from a loss of 5¢ a share in the period last year.

In New York the volume is weak, as are the techs, with big ticket techs like Microsoft, Intel and Cisco trading lower. The old economy is bouncing back a bit on names such as GM and strength in oils.

At midday, the Dow Jones industrial average is up 85 points to10,592. The Nasdaq composite has dropped 11 ticks to 2,724. The S&P 500 is up six to 1,342.

This morning’s GDP results showed that the U.S. economy grew at its slowest pace in four years in the third quarter, sparking fears for corporate profits and raising the spectre of a hard landing. Election misery continue to linger, as well.

The CDNX is down yet again today, off 18 points to 2,959 on light volume of 15 million shares. Techs are leading the way south, down 3.8%, while mines and oils are flat. ADR Global Enterprises is the top trader, up 75% to 35¢ on 1.5 million shares.