By James Langton

(April 4 – 13:00 ET) – Markets have had a choppy day today — opening down, spiking up and gyrating all morning. At midday, the TSE 300 is down 21 points to 7,423.

Volume is moderate at 70.1 million shares, about nine to seven in favour of sellers. Decliners are ahead of advancers five to four, and new lows are trumping new highs five to one.

Eight of the TSE’s 14 sub-indices are down at midday, led by the financials. Pipelines and merchandisers are also notably soft, but there’s not really strong selling anywhere. The buying is even weaker, except for golds, which are up more than 3.5%. All the other buying is minimal.

Nortel Networks is the top trader as usual, but its action is typical of today’s trading. Nortel is down just 2¢ on 5.5 million shares. Rival Lucent Technologies was out this morning denying rumors of impending bankruptcy, but the rumours are enough to nail the stock anyway. But many tech stocks are recovering today after yesterday’s battering. Upside leaders include Research in Motion, Alcatel, Siebel, and JDS Uniphase.

Today’s real weakness is in the financials. The banks are heavy traders on the downside. CIBC is down 1.6%, as is TD. The insurers are soft, too.

The fund companies are also weak. Guardian Capital and C.I. Fund Management are down notably. Guardian is off 6.7%, C.I. is down 5%, as it announces its earnings.

C.I. reported net income for the quarter ended February 28 was $8 million, or 4¢ a share, compared with a loss of 2¢ a share last year. The board also increased the quarterly dividend to 1¢ per common share.

Other losers include a mixed bag of Cott Corp., Linamar, Dorel, Gildan Activewear, Bombardier, Gulf Canada and Vincor.

Placer Dome is leading the golds higher, up 4.3% on 1.5 million shares. Other winners include Agnico Eagle Mines, Meridian Gold and Algoma Central. Not all the golds are strong though, Iamgold is down 2% in heavy trading.

In other news, Aliant has entered into an agreement with a syndicate of underwriters led by RBC Dominion Securities Inc. for a $150 million bought deal for 6 million 5.45% cumulative redeemable preference shares. The maximum gross proceeds raised under the offering will be $175 million if the underwriters’ exercise their over-allotment option in full.

In New York trading has been choppy, too. The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 100 points on the open, but has bounced and it now sits off those highs, up 82 points to 9,568. The Nasdaq composite index is up 17 points to 1,690. The S&P 500 has gained seven points to 1,114. The lack of spooky comments from U.S. Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan in his testimony on international trade appears to be the only source of strength.

The CDNX is following the TSE, down five points to 2,903. Volume is strong at 18.5 million shares. Energy is leading the way lower, with mines down a tiny bit and techs sitting flat. Newcomer Minera Capital is the top trader up 11% to 39¢ on 2.2 million shares.