North American stocks were relatively unchanged at midday on Thursday, at least from the top-down view of the benchmark indexes. Take a deeper look, though, and you'll see that the widespread tech sell-off that began with Oracle Corp. is continuing and gold mining stocks are also faring poorly due to concerns about rising costs.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 7 points, to 13,399. BCE Inc. and the big banks were up. However, Barrick Gold Corp. fell 0.8 per cent and technology-heavyweight Research In Motion Ltd. fell 2.8 per cent.
In the United States, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 32 points, or 0.3 per cent, to 12,391. Alcoa Inc. and Exxon Mobil Corp. were up on higher commodity prices. Crude oil futures rose to $106.25 (U.S.) a barrel, up 35 cents.
However, the blue-chip index was weighed down by weak banks and a sell-off among technology bellwether stocks Intel Corp., International Business Machines Corp. and Microsoft Corp.
The broader S&P 500 fell to 1339, down 2 points or 0.1 per cent. Oracle was the biggest drag on the index after the software maker reported on Wednesday disappointing sales for its new products, suggesting that technology stocks might not be immune to the economic downturn. The shares fell 7.1 per cent on Thursday.
