Weak corporate news has traders knocking down stocks again Wednesday. At midday the S&P/TSX index is down 72 points to 6,320.

Volume is robust at 91.1 million shares, with selling overwhelming the buying by a margin of 17:11. Market breadth is decidedly negative, with losers outnumbering winners by about three to two.

The selling is broad-based, coming on the heels of some high-profile earnings warnings in the U.S. from companies such as J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., and Oracle Corp.

A homegrown warning from Celestica is hitting TSX tech stocks hard, down almost 9% at midday. Financials are off almost 2%, and there is weakness in real estate, health care, industrials and diversifieds. Golds are gaining in the face of this fierce selling, up more than 2%. There are also gains in telecoms and energy plays.

Celestica is the loser du jour. The stock is down about 22% so far today after it issued a large earnings warning. Volume has been quite hefty, too, with 5.2 million shares of the stock changing hands.

The weakness in Celestica is spilling over to the usual suspects in the tech space, Nortel Networks is down 6.5%, Research in Motion has dropped 4.6% and Zarlink Semi is down 4.2%. There are also substantial drops in Cognos, Open Text and Mosaic Group.

Financial stocks are also taking a thumping after the J.P. Morgan warning focused investor attention on the ongoing effect of bad telecom loans and a weak market environment. TD Bank has been the biggest target of this move, dropping 2.2% in active trading today. Royal Bank and Scotiabank are taking their licks, too.

A general negativity on stocks is also catching names such as Alcan, Onex, Quebecor and Cognicase.

The big winner on the day is Wescam, it has jumped 44% in heavy trading on news that it is being taken out by L-3 Communications. The trade has eaten up almost all of the premium on the deal, with the stock now trading at $9.44, just below the takeout price of $9.50.

The only other notable winners are the golds, which are simply benefiting from the weakness elsewhere. Barrick is up, as is Placer Dome and Goldcorp. Smaller producers such as Eldorado Gold, Kinross, Bema Gold, Glamis and TVX Gold are all higher on the day.

Other odd gainers include Hurricane Hydrocarbons and Dynatec.

In M&A news, Precision Drilling has acquired all the operating assets of NightHawk Vacuum Services Ltd., a provider of oil field vacuum services out of Alberta.

World Heart has received a letter from Nasdaq staff informing the company that it is not meeting its listing requirements. The company has submitted a plan to show its ability to regain compliance.

Finally, TransForce has reached an agreement with a syndicate of underwriters and expects to file a final prospectus today for an initial public offering of 12 million trust units for gross proceeds of $102 million. The closing of the deal will complete the conversion of TransForce Inc. into TransForce Income Fund.

The net proceeds from the IPO will be used to reduce bank indebtedness due to recent acquisitions, and to reduce existing long-term debt. The offering is being underwritten by a syndicate of underwriters led by National Bank Financial Inc. and Scotia Capital Inc., and including RBC Dominion Securities Inc., BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc., Desjardins Securities Inc., TD Securities Inc. and Sprott Securities Inc.

In New York, profit worries have dominated trading. The Dow Jones industrial average is off its intra-day lows, but is still down 132 points at midday to 8,075. The S&P 500 has dropped 14 ticks to 859. The Nasdaq composite index is down 24 points to 1,236.

The S&P/TSX Venture index is also sliding, down three ticks to 993. Volume is decent at 13.4 million shares. The top trader is CHK Wireless Technologies, up a penny to 14¢ on 1.2 million shares.