North American markets opened higher this morning on hopes for economic recovery, but at midday only Toronto is holding on to gains.

The TSE 300 is up 46 points to 7,558.

Volume is average at 85 million shares, with buying holding a decisive two to one advantage over selling. Market breadth is also positive, with winners outnumbering losers by five to four.

Today, the buying is virtually unanimous. Tech hardware is down a bit, and there are small slides in food stores, tobacco and cable stocks, but nothing is down even as much as 1%. Everything else is up.

Golds are leading the way, up about 3%. Integrated oils have gained 2%. Transportation equipment, telephone utilities and auto parts are also notably stronger. Most of the other gains are quite modest.

The banks are back in the spotlight today, with fresh earnings from Bank of Montreal. BMO reported weaker year over year earnings, but shareholders are pleased at how well it is holding up and the stock is gaining 2%. Royal Bank and Bank of Nova Scotia are boasting gains on strong volume too. CIBC is more or less unchanged.

Barrick Gold is leading the gold group higher today, up better than 3%. Placer Dome is not far behind, and some of the smaller caps such as Kinross and Meridian Gold are gaining too. Franco Nevada is up as well.

Other gainers include resource names such as Enserco Energy, Storm Energy, Husky Energy and Meota Resources. Westcoast Energy is down a bit though.

Bombardier is rallying strongly today, up 4.6% on news of a new order from Japan.

Most of the losers today are techs, as investors try to gauge their participation in the economic recovery. Celestica is down about 1%. Solectron has dropped 4.5%. The notable losers include Pivotal, BCE Emergis, and ATI. Co-Steel and Rio Alto are weaker too.

In earnings news, Dorel has reported that its 2001 earnings rose to US$25,504,046. After one-time charges, net income was 89¢ per share in 2001 compared with 61¢ in 2000.

AltaRex has reported year-end loss of $33.8 million. The company recorded a net loss of $10.1 million for the fourth quarter, almost double the loss in the previous fourth quarter. The prior year net loss was $17.7 million.

And the bigger losses keep on coming, with news that Datawest Solutions’ loss rose to $4.5 million compared with $2.7 million for last year. The higher loss was due to goodwill amortization in the current year and tax recovery earned in the prior year. Also, higher margin professional services revenues declined as a result of the industry-wide slowdown in this sector.

In New York, the trading opened strongly, but the gains dissipated after weaker consumer confidence numbers were released, suggesting a stalled recovery. Also, the Enron hearings fired up again, focusing attention on accounting chicanery.

At midday the Dow Jones industrial average is down 66 points to 10,079. The Nasdaq composite index has dropped 16 points to 1,753. The S&P 500 is down just five points to 1,104.

The S&P/CDNX Composite Index continues to flag. It is down three points to 1,101, on average volume of 17 million shares. Breckenridge Minerals is the top trader, halving its price to 1¢ on volume of 600,000 shares.