Both Canada and the United States saw the release of weak reports this morning, although ours was much better than theirs.

The same thing could be said about the state of our markets. At midday, the TSE 300 is down just 28 points to 7,388.

Volume is average for recent days at 66.5 million shares, with buyers ahead of sellers by about five to three. Losers slightly outnumber winners, however.

On a sector basis, mines, consumer stocks, utilities and financials are all down. Techs are bouncing a little today, as are golds and conglomerates.

Techs were buoyed when Intel affirmed its latest guidance last night, and there have been no major warnings in the sector since. As a results, techs are up about 2% today. Nortel Networks is leading the way, up 3%. Celestica is up a bit, as are ATI and Geac.

Other gainers today include takeover target, Anderson Exploration, and names such as CP, Canadian Hunter, AEC, PanCanadian Petroleum and Hurricane Hydrocarbons.

Recent target of takeover talk, Husky Energy, is giving up some recent gains. Golds are also bouncing, thanks to names such as Agnico Eagle and Goldcorp.

The big losers today are the financials. Royal Bank is leading the way down, off 2.4%. Smaller losses, albeit on stronger volume, are coming from CIBC and Bank of Nova Scotia. The possibility of a deeper, longer economic slowdown forecast by today’s jobs numbers seems to be spooking these stocks.

Other losers include a selection of big name stocks such as Sears Canada, Hudsons Bay, Fairmont Hotels, Norske Skog, Alcan, CP Ships, Vasogen and Nova Chemicals.

Transat stock is bearing the scars of the company being slapped with a fine from Transport Canada and a $30 million class action lawsuit stemming from its near miss in the Azores. The stock is down more than 5% today.

In New York stocks are tanking in response to a much worse than expected jobless numbers. Usually Wall Street loves a layoff, but not when it means that consumers may stop propping up the economy.

At midday, the Dow Jones industrial average is down 199 points to 9,642. Techs are holding up better there, too, with the Nasdaq composite index dropping just nine points to 1,697. The S&P 500 is down 14 points to 1,092.

The small caps are bucking the down trend. The CDNX has gained eight points at midday to 2,981. Volume is light at 12 million shares.

Energy stocks are leading the way higher, followed by techs. Miners are flat. Ventures Resource Corp is the top trader, down 50% to 2¢ on 552,000 shares.