Major indexes closed mixed in North America today. While the broader markets saw some areas of strength, techs were hit again as investors held their breath in front of Oracle’s earnings announcement and Level 3 Communications surprise profit warning.

In the states, that left the Dow up 22 points at 106454 and Nasdaq down 40 points at 1989. The S&P 500 was off 6 points at 1208.

In Canada the TSE was still digesting Friday’s dismal news. That saw the TSE 300 trend down over the course of the day, and still heading lower into the final bell. When it finally rang, the 300 was off 109 points at 7707.

The industrial products sector was responsible for much of the decline. It was down 5.3% on the day, largely a result of a 13.9% drop in the price of Nortel–it closed at $13.06. The rest of the sector was also weak, with itemus dropping 11.6% to close at 19¢ and Research In Motion down 8% at $38.65.

Also in the IP sector, MGI software announced less than stellar earnings and was hit with heavy selling. It closed down 42% at $1.01.

The utilities sector was also down, dropping 3.1%, on big declines in Microcell (down 9.4% to $12.73) and Telus, down 6.1% to $30.75.

Overall, nine of fourteen subsectors were off on the day. Of the five sectors that advanced, only conglomerates, up 1%, made a little, if any, headway.

Abitibi was heavily traded today and down 4.77% at $11.59 after Friday’s announcement that it’s cutting newsprint prices.

Trading was suspended today in shares of Greater Lenora Resources after the stock plunged in morning trading. The company eventually made an announcement that there were no corporate developments that would account for the action in the stock. Whatever the rumour mill was working on it was enough to send the price of Lemora down 36.9% today to close at 26¢.

The CDNX was also down today. It dropped 23 points to close at 3301. That was on volume of 38 million shares. Market trend was strongly negative with 272 shares declining and only 196 advancing.

Tough day for the loonie. By this afternoon it had dropped over three-quarters of a cent to close at 65.19¢ U.S., a decline of 0.84%.