Much of this morning’s enthusiasm has evaporated, but strength in the golds is keeping the TSE in the positive.

At midday, the TSE 300 is up 22 points to 7,506.

Volume is heavy at 118.5 million shares, with the buyers swamping the sellers by 17 to six. Market breadth is much narrower, favouring winners over losers by five to four.

The gold group is up 3.4%, as the metal struggles to stay above US$300, exciting the gold bugs and safety seekers alike.

There are also gains in consumer stocks, miners, energy producers and biotechs. There’s weakness in oil service stocks, media plays and utilities.

It’s all about gold today, as the commodity’s price continues to rally and traders pile into gold producers as a safety play. Barrick, Franco Nevada, NovaGold, Kinross and TVX Gold are all up sharply and on heavy volume.

The mixed trade in the energy sector is led by gains in PanCanadian Energy, AEC, Rio Alto and Compton Petroleum. But there’s weakness in Baytex Energy, PetroCanada and Petrobank.

The tech trade is mixed, too. Celestica is down, Nortel Networks is rallying though. Positive analyst talk about the wireless sector has seen gains in BellCanada International, and BCE Emergis. Leitch Tech, ALI and Telus are all down. BCE is down in active trading.

Other gainers include Gildan Activewear and Cameco. But the chemicals group is mostly lower, with selling in DuPont and Potash. Losers include Ashton Mining and Intertape Polymer.

In New York, markets opened up but began selling off by late morning with the usual accounting and recovery worries nagging traders. Golds are strong there, too, but they don’t wield the heavy club in New York that they do in Toronto. The Dow Jones industrial average is flat, up one point at 9,626. The Nasdaq composite index is down seven ticks to 1,775. The S&P 500 has gained a point to 1,081.

The S&P/CDNX Composite Index is weak today too, down five points to 1,137. Volume is very heavy there too at 25.6 million shares. Look Communications is leading the way gaining 33% to 8¢ on 3.2 million shares.