Stocks tumbled today gloomy tech news, and evidence of weak consumer spending in the United States.

The TSE 300 shed 76.69 point to close at 7,417.65. The last time the composite index closed this low was November 1999. Volume was relatively strong at 112 million shares, but the market internals were deeply negative today, with 679 declines and just 376 advances.

Gloomy economic prospects saw traders dumping stocks across the board. Eleven of the TSE’s 14 sub-indices suffered losses. Only golds, pipelines and financial services eked out small gains.

The industrial products sub-index, home of the TSE’s tech stocks fell almost 3% today on negative news from Sun Microsystems. Consumer products fared almost as poorly, sliding 2.39%.

Among the most active stocks today, Nortel Networks fell 37¢ to close at $9.69. Volume was 9.6 million shares. Celestica lost $2.52 to $56.47, a drop of more than $4.25%.

TVX Gold gained 4¢ to 80¢ on volume of 6 million shares.

Trading was active on the Canadian Venture Exchange a volume of 30.3 million shares, with 159 advances, 213 declines and 508 issues unchanged. The CDNX index closed down 5.54 at 3,023.94.

In New York, stocks sold off after confirmation of weak consumer spending in July. The Dow Jones industrial average marked its lowest finish since April and closed below 10,000. The Dow fell 171.32 points to 9,919.58.

The Nasdaq composite index also fell as Sun Microsystems took a dive on the back of negative comments. The Nasdaq shed 51.49 points to 1,791.68. The S&P 500 dropped 19.53 points to 1,129.03.