Markets are rallying back today on a mix of positive corporate and economic news. At midday, the S&P/TSX index has gained 49 points to 6,772.

Toronto volume remains strong at 141 million shares, with the buying ahead of the selling by a margin of about eight to five. Market breadth is also positive; winners outnumber losers 18:13.

Golds are bearing the brunt of selling today as traders exit the safe haven play. The sector is down 2.6%.

The beneficiaries of this move away from gold include information technology, up more than 2%, industrials, diversifieds, financial services, and consumer stocks.

Nortel has racked up a 4% gain on modest volume. It is joined by strength in Celestica, Pivotal, Zarlink Semiconductor, JDS Uniphase and Synsorb Biotech.

Bombardier is powering the industrials higher, as it enjoys a 6.4% gain in strong trading on news of a new rail contract.

Other gainers include Shppers Drug Mart, Algoma Steel, Southwestern Resources Co., and Forzani Group.

Golds are dominating the downside, led by TVX Gold, which has had to declare force majeure after its Greek subsidiary was ordered to halt development by the Greek government, pending a court decision. Other losers in the sector include Newmont Mining, Kinross, Placer Dome, Barrick and WWheaton River Minerals.

Non-gold losers include Husky Injection Molding and Agricore United.

In other business news, CoolBrands International reported that its net earnings for the first quarter were $2,723,000, as compared with net earnings of $1,411,000 for the same quarter last year.

In New York, traders are also bullish. The Dow Jones industrial average is up 152 points at midday to 8,748. The S&P 500 has added 16 points to 926. The Nasdaq composite has gained 41 points to sit at 1,442.

The market’s only weak spot is small caps. The S&P/TSX Venture index is down about half a point to 1,104. Volume remains robust though, at 26 million shares traded. The day’s top trader is Pillar Resources, down about 2% to 59¢ on 2.4 million shares traded.