By James Langton
(May 16 – 13:00 ET) – Stocks are rallying this morning, ahead of this afternoon’s interest rate announcement from the U.S. Federal Reserve Board.
The Toronto Stock Exchange climbing, led by its tech heavyweights. At midday, the TSE 300 composite index is up 218 points to 9500. Volume remains light again today at 78 million shares, more than 4:3 in favour of buyers. Advances are ahead of declines about 11:8. Techs are up 6.5%. Software stocks are a distant second, up 3.25%, followed by engineers and biotechs. Media stocks and paper firms are also strong.
As usual Nortel Networks is the story. It is up more than 7% on 5.9 million shares after taking a beating in recent days. Hot on its heels are strong gains in JDS Uniphase, 724 Solutions, Sierra Wireless and BCE Emergis.
Corel Corp. is up 7.5%, off earlier highs after announcing that its troubled merger with Inprise/Borland is off. On the other hand, Ottawa-area-rival Newbridge Networks shareholders approve its proposed sale to Alcatel this morning.
On the downside, yesterday’s strong groups are now showing the way down. That includes food stores, energy plays, miners, merchandisers and financials. Loblaws is down 4.4% in active trading, followed closely by Sobeys. Stocks such as Imperial Oil, Potash Corp., Precision Drilling, and Corbys are down markedly.
Laidlaw has slipped 13% to 87¢ in heavy trading after announcing that it will have to defer a $22.95 million interest payment and may fall into default.
In New York, stocks are making gains on rather light volume. The Dow Jones industrial average is up 135 points at midday to 10942. NASDAQ has added 104 points to 3711. The S&P has tacked on another 14 points to 1467.
The CDNX has gained slightly, up a single point at midday to 3439 points on light volume of 15.5 million shares. Energy stocks and techs are up, but miners are sliding. Epic Energy Inc. is up 57% to 11¢ on 1.1 million shares.