By Jeff Sanford

(February 28 – 18:30 ET) – Traders were in a gloomy mood today. The bad news came early with further evidence of a slowing U.S. economy. Today’s GDP release confirmed that the U.S. economy is growing even slower than previously thought at just 1.1% in the fourth quarter of 2000.

U.S. Fed chief Alan Greenspan didn’t do anything to lighten the mood when he told the U.S. House of Representatives that he sees no reason for an inter-meeting rate.

Investors were also hit with a StatsCan report that showed the Canadian economy grew at only 2.6% in the last quarter, half the rate for the first three quarters.

The TSE 300 suffered through most of the day, trading as low as 7,974.33 before a late afternoon recovery pulled the index up to close at 8,078.72, a slight gain of 13.03 points. Volume was 145 million shares

Defensive moves into pipelines, real estate and utilities provided the buying pressure. Those sectors ended the day up 2.08%, 1.43% and 0.41%. TransCanada PipeLines gained 4% to $18.73.

The downside was led by a 1.64% decline in golds, as profit takers stepped in the wake of recent gains in that sector.

Overall nine of 14 sub-indices were up. The market trend among individual issues, though, was negative with 504 advancers and 595 decliners.

Among financials stocks, BMO continued to sell off today after its lackluster earnings report yesterday. It finished down another 2.66% at $76.50. CIBC slipped 2% to $47.43.

It was another tough slogging for tech shares. JDS finished down today at $42.50, a decline of 4.54% , RIM slipped 4.84% to $59, while 360Networks fell 6.11% to $12.30 and Descartes plunged 10.58% to $23.25

The CDNX was also down today. The venture capital exchange lost 12.66 points to close at 3,062.98. Decliners outpaced advancer 305 to 230. Volume was 41 million shares.

The loonie slid over half a cent today in response to the GDP news. It closed down 0.53% at US65.09¢.

In New York, markets didn’t experience a late day rally like Toronto, only heavy selling into the closing bell. When the dust settled the Dow Jones industrial average was off 141.60 points to 10,495.28. The Nasdaq composite dropped 55.99 points to 2151.83, and the S&P 500 shed 21.13 points at 1,236.81.

February will stand as the third largest monthly drop of Nasdaq in its history. The tech-heavy exchanged finished off the month down 22%.