Markets are slumping in a rather light trading session today. At midday the S&P/TSX index is down 35 points to 6,461. Volume is light — under 60 million shares. Volume is favouring the downside by a margin of six to five. And, market breadth is negative, with losers outnumbering winners by about 14:13.

There is broad-based weakness in the market today, led by tech stocks, which are down about 3%. There is not a lot of corporate or economic news driving
sentiment. There was a shooting incident in Times Square that had some worried about renewed terror attacks, particularly since today is Yom Kippur.
The possibility of war with Iraq is also hanging over the market.

Most sectors are down less than 1%. But gold stocks and diversifieds are making gains.

Celestica is leading the tech stocks down. It has dropped more than 5%, on renewed profit worries in that sector. Nortel Networks, ATI and CAE are all down by similar margins. Royal Group technologies is taking an 11% hit after it warned about lower profits for its current fiscal year.

Along with the techs, there is weakness in a host of big names, including Power Financial, Telus, Shaw Communications, Biovail, Neurochem, Petro
Canada and Suncor Energy. There is notable weakness in the financials, too, with slides in CIBC and TD Bank leading the group lower. Fairfax Financial is down too.

A couple of the big gold names are lower today, with small slides in Barrick and Placer dome. However, the smaller producers are making gains. Iamgold is
leading the way, with a 4.7% gain. It is joined by bids for Eldorado, Goldcorp, Glamis Gold and Wheaton River Minerals.

Bombardier is posting a small gain. There are also gains in selected names such as Rogers Communications, Agrium, and Algoma Steel.

In business news, Richelieu Hardware has closed the acquisition of 75% of the shares of Menuiserie Des Pins. A Quebec-based manufacturing and
distributor of products designed for window and door manufacturers.

The small caps are a bit weaker too, with the S&P/TSX Venture index down four points to 1005. Volume is weak at just 11 million shares. The day’s top trader is Luxell Technologies, which is up 29% on almost 1.5 million shares.

In New York, markets are slouching along in a holiday mode. The Dow Jones industrial index is up just 14 points to 8327 in a lacklustre trading session. The S&P 50 is down five tics to 884. The Nasdaq composite index is down 16 points to 1275.