Canadian traders missed Monday’s flight to safety move on U.S. stock markets, but they are making up for it today. At midday, the S&P/TSX composite index is down 32 points to 6,710.

Volume is robust at 104 million shares, with the selling outpacing the buying by a five to four margin. Market breadth is also negative, with losers outnumbering winners 54:43.

Yesterday, U.S. traders appeared to become convinced that recent rallying moves were unwarranted and they took profits handily.

Drugmakers were particularly hard hit on fears they’d be forced to lower prices in the U.S. And, renewed terrorism fears also hurt sentiment.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 185.58 at 8,493.39, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 45.76, to 1,492.77, both on fears that the declining dollar would affect foreign investment in the United States. The S&P 500 dropped 23.53 to 920.77.

In Toronto, techs are leading the way lower Tuesday, off 2.5%, There is also notable weakness in consumer stocks, health care and diversifieds.

Everything else is down, too, apart from golds, which are up almost 3%.

Nortel is leading the tech trade, down 2.2% in strong volume. However, there are bigger drops in names such as Cognos and JDS Uniphase, both down more than 6%. Research in Motion has dropped almost 5%.

Most of the big name blue chips are losing ground today, with BCE down 0.8%, Alcan off 2%, and slides in Petro Canada, EnCana, Magna International, Fairmont Hotels, Abitibi, QLT and Tesco.

Financials are active traders today, but they aren’t showing a lot of direction. Royal bank and CIBC are both up a bit, but Bank of Montreal, Scotiabank, TD Bank and Canada Life are all down a little. Sun Life is down almost 2%. Fairfax has dropped nearly 5%.

Golds are the big beneficiaries of this move, with a 3.2% gain for Barrick, and higher prices for Placer Dome, Iamgold, Bema Gold, Wheaton River Minerals, Kinross, Gabriel Resources and Goldcorp.

One gold stock that isn’t joining the rally is Eldorado Gold, which has dropped 8% in heavy trading of 2.4 million shares after it revised its forecast production and costs at its Sao Bento mine in Brazil from 105,000 ounces at $190 per ounce to 95,000 ounces at $230/ounce.

Apart from the golds, there is some strength in Bombardier, Aeterna Laboratories, and ID Biomedical.

In New York, stocks are recovering a bit today in a lacklustre trading session. The Dow Jones industrial average has gained 39 points to 8,532. The S&P 500 is up three ticks to 924. The Nasdaq composite index has added six ticks to 1,499.

The small caps are largely on the sidelines today, with the S&P/TSX Venture index up a single point to 1,075. Volume is fairly robust at 19.1 million shares. Soho Resources is leading the trade, up 16% on more than 1.1 million shares traded.