Although Fed chief Alan Greenspan appeared to keep the door open for more further cuts to U.S. interest rates, negative outlooks from the tech sector sent the Nasdaq into a tailspin today.

The Nasdaq composite index ended the day off 2.47% at 2,016, a decline of 51 points.

The rest of the North American markets were down, but suffered only mild losses in comparison. The Dow Jones industrial average was off 37 points at 10,570, while the S&P 500 was off seven points at 1,208. In Toronto, the TSE 300 fell 74 points to 7,620.

On the TSE, gains in metals and minerals, up 3.3%, and golds, up 2.5%, were offset by losses in industrials, off 3.1%, and oil and gas, off 1.8%. Transportation and conglomerates also declined, both sub-indices fell 1.5%.

The bounce in metals and minerals was due to a recovery in the price of Alcan after it sold off earlier this week.

Nortel Networks led the TSE’s most active list. It was off 65¢ at $11.60. Celestica was also caught in the tech selloff. It dropped $6.89 to close at $64.01 even though it reported improved revenues.

One company not worried about earnings this quarter is Cott Corp. They reported a 63% increase in earnings today. That led to a 10% rise in its share price. Cott closed up $1.75 at $19.

Canadian Pacific sold off today, dropping $1.19 to close at $56.71. The only news on the company was that it was in talks to sell a hotel, the Fairmont Chateau Whistler.

The Bank of Montreal fell 85¢ to close at $41.13 today as investors took profits on yesterday’s big jump.

Teck was up 47¢ at $12.32 in the wake of an announcement that shareholders had approved that company’s takeover of Cominco yesterday.

Overall, decliners outpaced advancers on the TSE, 565 to 456. Volume was 132.9 million shares.

The CDNX slipped 15 points to 3,090 on volume of 31 million shares. market trend was negative, with decliners surpassing advancers 235 to 162.