By James Langton

(May 30 – 13:00 ET) – Canadian traders found their way back to work this morning after more or less holidaying in sympathy with their American cousins yesterday. And they returned to a tech led rally in the U.S., sparking similar moves here. At midday the TSE 300 is up 161 points to 9221.

U.S. consumer confidence was reported stronger than expected this morning. However traders remain split over whether more interest rate hikes are in the cards, or if the U.S. Federal Reserve Board is through raising rates. Either way some analysts foresee a summer rally.

Volume is rejuvenated after yesterday’s minimal trading, although it is still rather sluggish at 74.7 million shares. Volume is about 2:1 in favour of buyers, and advancers outnumber the decliners 5:4.

Ten of the TSE’s 14 subgroups are up.Technology stocks lead the way driving industrials up more than 3%. Utilities, cable stocks and engineering are up, too. Even golds and financials are in the black this morning.

As usual Nortel Networks leads trading, up 4% on more than 4,000,000 shares. Optimism about technology in general and a strong outlook for Nortel in particular is driving the action. BCE has gained 2.5% on 2.6 million shares.

Nortel is joined by other tech favourites JDS Uniphase, Celestica, Research in Motion and Ballard Power. Alcatel, Microcell and Hummingbird are all up, too.

The downside is pretty weak this morning, although both real estate and paper stocks are off notably. Old economy stocks are taking a bit of a dip, including Falconbridge, CN, Berkley Petroleum and Stelco.

Among the financials, banks are up, and insurers are down. Scotiabank is leading the banks, while Manulife Financial is weak among insurers.

In New York much the same picture emerges, low volume but upside momentum. The Dow is up 130 points to 10429. NASDAQ is stronger, up 128 points to 3333. The S&P 500 composite has gained 22 points to 1399.

The small caps are also up, making the rally unanimous. The CDNX has gained 20 points to 3225 on strong volume of 21.3 million shares. Techs are leading the way while energy stocks are down and mines are flat. CVL Resources Ltd. is the top trader, up slightly to 77¢ on volume of 1.6 million shares.