By Gavin Adamson

(October 6 – 17:30 ET) – What a
difference a night’s sleep can
make. The US Federal Reserve’s new
bias toward economic tightening
might have hindered markets
yesterday. Today, the comments were
all but forgotten.

Exchange indexes were up almost
everywhere. The breadth was thin,
and only a few familiar stocks
gained. Especially active today
were the Internet stocks, after
another US analyst labelled them
‘buy.’ e-Bay tacked on
another US$6 7/16 to $147 5/8.
Amazon.com Inc. swelled by
US$4 to 82 7/16, and
ExciteAtHome gained $4 1/2
to $46 9/16. PSINet Inc.
jumped by $5 11/16 to $39 7/10,
because the commercial Internet
service provider opened a
well-received virtual storefront
on its website.

Nasdaq climbed 57.42 to
2,850.90. The Dow put on its
biggest show in five weeks,
gaining 187.75 to 10,588.34.
The S&P also leapt by 24.03 to
1,325.38. Advancers beat out
decliners by 17 to 13 on the
NYSE, and by a margin of 21 to
19 on Nasdaq.

In Canada, the climbing was
lead by the banking sector,
although half of the TSE’s 14
sub-sectors were ahead in late
trading. The 300 index finished
up 34.63 to 7,025.10. Although
gold prices were idle today, the
VSE rose 1.75 to 424.38. The
ASE inched up by 10.79 to
2,883.54.