It was a fairly lacklustre trading week, and Friday’s action was no exception. Volume on the TSE could was anemic at 132 million shares. The TSE 300 closed the day at 8,290.20, a decline of 54.01 points.

Traders in New York seemed to be looking forward to the Memorial Day weekend. Markets were quiet there as well. Nevertheless, the major indexes trended down on some negative economic reports. Federal Reserve Board chair Alan Greenspan warned yesterday that the economic slowdown may continue for the next few months, and first quarter U.S. GDP numbers were revised down sharply this morning.

The Dow Jones industrial average posted a triple-digit loss, off 117.05 points at 11,005.37. The Nasdaq composite index slipped was off 31.01 points to 2,251, and the S&P 500 fell 15.28 points at 1277.89.

On the TSE, the only one of the 14 sub-indices finished the day ahead. Gold advanced 1.5%. Industrial products and transportation led on the downside, with declines of 1.7%. Also down more than a percent were consumer products, pipelines, utilities and conglomerates.

With no major action, it was a good day to be a penny stock. Itemus Inc. was popular today. It was up 20.31% at 38¢ in heavy trading. It the day’s second most active issue.

Third on the list was Northern Financial which gained 23.53% on news that it acquired competing online broker CanadaInvestDirect. It closed at 10¢.

360Networks bounced today, climbing 11.35% to close at $2.06. That’s still off substantially from its 52-week high of $35.90.

The CDNX managed to post a small gain. It advanced 35.29 points to 3l322.37. Volume was 37 million shares. Advancers outpaced decliners 262 to 214.

After a slight recovery yesterday, the loonie slipped again today, dropping 0.12% to close at US64.61¢