Investors seem to be worried that they might have erred in pricing in a recovery for stocks and backed off just about everything today.

Warnings from a wide range of companies sparked concern that upcoming quarterly earnings will come in lower than expected.

Also spooking investors was an announcement by General Electric that it has doubts about whether or not European Union officials will approve its merger with Honeywell.

Feeding into that was the news about the U.S. Federal Reserve Board’s beige book that says it doesn’t see signs of a recovery yet.

All that bad news was enough to sink markets. On Wall Street, the Nasdaq composite index plunged 3.66% to close at 2,044, a two-month low. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 1.67% to10,690, while the S&P 500 slipped 1.75% to 1,220.

Here at home, the TSE 300 fell 93 points to 7,920. The only sub-indices to advance were gold, as a defensive call, and real estate. Gold rose 2.2%.

Everything else was in the red. Industrial products led the way down with a 2.3% decline.

The big losers in that sector were C-Mac, off 7.8% at $35, Celestica off 6.3% at $65.20 and RIM off 8.1% at $42.35. Nortel was off “only” 2.8% at $16.23.

The paper and forest products sector was off 2%, metals and minerals 1.9% and consumer products, off 1.7%. Within that sector MDS was down a big 10.5% at $19.95.

Financial services was also hit hard, dropping 1.3%. Some of the worst losses included TD down 2.4% at $40.55, CIBC down 2.1% at $53.55 and BMO down 1.9% at $41.55.

Overall, 597 issues declined today and only 461 advanced. Total market volume was 170 million shares.

Number one on the most active list today, with 18 million shares traded, was Velvet Exploration on news that El Paso Corp has launched a C$347 million bid for the company.

Also active today was 360metworks in advance of a major debt payment tomorrow. Some investors were betting the beleaguered company might still make it as stock bounced a bit today closing up 1.4¢ at 65¢.

Talisman Energy was off 2.89% today on speculation a new law in the U.S. will force it to give up its NYSE listing or divest its Sudan holdings. It closed at $59.58.

The CDNX slipped nine points today to close at 3,330. That was low volume of 34 million shares. Market trend was negative with 255 shares declining and 198 advancing.