Stocks got a boost from a strong U.S. jobs report this morning. At midday, the S&P/TSX index is up 22 points to 7,564.

Volume is just average at 125.5 million shares, with buying ahead of the selling by a margin of almost four to three. Market breadth also favours the bulls, with winners outnumbering losers 27:23.

The stronger jobs report spurred hope that the U.S. recovery may be able to sustain itself after all. The good news is boosting speculative sectors such as tech, up 1.6% today. There is also some strength in consumer stocks, diversifieds, industrials and financials.

The rebound is whacking gold stocks, however. The safe haven sector is down 2.6%. Materials stocks are materially lower, too.

Nortel has jumped ahead 4% in active trading. It is joined by strength in Celestica, Research in Motion, and Open Text. Telecoms such as Telus, BCE, Microcell and Mitec Telecom shares are all notably higher, too.

Mitec reported that it has signed an agency agreement with Desjardins Securities Inc. for a private placement of approximately $7 million. Proceeds of the issue will be used for general working capital purposes and debt repayment.

The biotechs may get whacked this afternoon though. Heavyweight Biovail has been halted all morning as it released news that one of its trucks lost a “material” shipment of Wellbutrin after being involved in a horrendous traffic accident on Wednesday.

The company said that it has not completed a final analysis of its third quarter, “but preliminary results indicate that revenues will be below previously issued guidance and will be in the range of $215 million to $235 million, and earnings per share will be 35¢ to 45¢.”

It also announced that a distributor of one of its products is cutting prices significantly and retroactively, cutting income by up to $15 million in the quarter, and another $15 million to $20 million in the fourth quarter. And, new shipments of another drug to alleviate a back order will not make it into third quarter results.

One tech that isn’t rallying is ATI Technologies, which has dropped 5.6% despite reporting a fourth-quarter profit on strong revenue gains. However, the firm also made changes to its revenue recognition practices, and announced it expects first quarter adjusted net income should be flat to marginally higher in the first quarter of fiscal 2004 relative to the fourth quarter of fiscal 2003.

In the financial group, Manulife is rallying. It’s up 1.2%, presumably as its big merger looks better in a U.S. recovery. Royal Bank is up, too, but Scotiabank is down.

Other gainers include Bombardier, Ivanhoe Energy, Kensington Energy, Axcan Pharma, ID Biomedical, and Badger Daylighting.

On the downside, golds are getting hit by the move into more growth-oriented stocks. Barrick is down just 0.4%, but there is notable weakness in smaller names such as Cambior, Bema Gold, Golden Star Resources, and Wheaton River.

Other losers include Rogers Communications, EnCana, Jaguar Nickel, Southwestern Resources, and International Forest Products.

In business news, negotiations between CAW-Canada and nursing home operator Extendicare broke down yesterday, after months of discussion failed to produce an agreement.

Jovian Capital has entered a deal to buy Felcom Data Services Inc. in exchange for a promissory note worth $200,000 payable six months from closing, and 1 million common shares in Jovian, at a price of 80¢ per share. Felcom provides third party services such as fund/portfolio performance and analytics, fund accounting, transfer agency, and administration.

Also, Jovian Capital has entered into preliminary discussions to secure bridge financing for future acquisitions. As part of this proposed bridge financing, Jovian would issue up to two million warrants to the lender, depending upon the amount of the financing. The warrants would be exercisable for three years at a price of 75¢ per common share.

In New York, the jobs report has been unambiguously positive for stocks, although an early rally hasn’t had much momentum. Stocks jumped as traders cheered, and others covered their short positions.

At midday, the Dow Jones is still up 136 points to 9,624. The Nasdaq composite index has jumped 47 points, or 2.5%, to 1,883. The S&P 500 is 16 points higher at 1,036.

Canadian small caps have managed to avoid the rally. The S&P/TSX Venture index is down six ticks today to 1,387. Volume is decent at 33.7 million shares, led by Spider Resources. It is up 2.5¢ to 13¢ on almost 3.6 million shares.