Toronto stocks are lower following at choppy trading session so far Thursday. After opening lower, market averages climbed through the morning, but have now fallen back.

At noon, the TSE 300 is down 17 points to 7825.

Volume is robust at 90 million shares, and almost evenly split between buyers and sellers. Market breadth is certainly bearish though, with losers outnumbering winners by 25:21.

Energy stocks and golds continue to lose their lustre. Miners and materials are also weak. There’s some resistance in techs and telecoms. Consumer stocks look a bit stronger, too.

Suncor Energy is leading the way down today, dropping more than 2% after issuing its latest earnings guidance. Petro Canada, SouthernEra Resources, Transalta and Hurricane Hydrocarbons are also weak. Nova has dropped 4%, as it faces a trade dispute in Europe.

Alcan is weak again today, down another 3%. Air Canada is down, as are TD Bank and Bank of Nova Scotia.

BCE is seeing a small loss in active trading. Trouble spot BCE Emergis is down 8% today. There is also weakness in Geac, Cognos and Inscape.

But former BCE fledgling, Nortel Networks, is up 2% despite being declared junk by Moody’s. The rating agency dropped the firm’s rating below investment grade today. Nortel is out with a statement saying that the move will not impact its business. Joining Nortel on the upside is Research in Motion and Sierra Wireless.

There are small gains on heavy volume in Bombardier. Power Corp. is up a bit today as is Aliant, Canadian Utilities, Algoma, Aber Diamond, Four Seasons, Shell and Vincor.

There’s lots of financing action today, led by CIBC, which plans to issue 12 million preferred shares to raise gross proceeds of $300 million.

George Weston Ltd. has agreed to a $265 million bought deal with a syndicate of underwriters led by RBC Capital Markets for 10.6 million preferred shares.

Also, Newalta has successfully completed its previously announced bought-deal offering of 8,219,179 common shares for total gross proceeds of $30 million.

In M&A news, Alimentation Couche-Tard has just signed an agreement in principle to purchase a network of 12 stores from Bruce Miller Oil Company in southeastern Indiana and the Cincinnati metro area in Ohio.

Finally, Hi-Alta Capital Inc.’s earnings increased to $991,800 last year.

In New York, the same choppy trade has prevailed, but the result is more encouraging. The market got a lift after president Bush called for an end to violence in the Middle East. The Dow Jones is up 42 points to 10,240. The Nasdaq composite index has gained a mere two ticks to 1,787. The S&P is up two points to 1,127.

The S&P/CDNX Composite Index is down two points to 1,176, in light trading of just 14.7 million shares. Skyharbour Developments is the top trader, up 7% to 32¢ on 360,167 shares.