Markets rise, but with narrow support

The TSE 300 is up about 27
points at midday. Volume is strong
at more than 60 million shares,
but the tone is rather negative.
Decliners are ahead of advancers
by a 9:7 margin. The selling
volume is ahead of the buying too.
Nevertheless, a few big stocks are
outweighing the negativity to keep
the TSE’s head above water.

Media, financials, utilities and
real estate are all carrying the
market higher, with more than 1%
moves to the upside. Big stocks
such as BCE are up almost 2%. TD
and CIBC are also up more than 1.5%.
Banks received a boost from the decisions to
keep interest rates where they
are in the UK and the rest of
Europe. CIBC has received a
particular boost from its plans to
dump some of its insurance
business, cutting jobs and cutting
costs.

Golds are again leading the
downside. There is some weakness
in other miners and energy stocks,
but the gold stocks are the
heaviest traders. Placer has
dropped almost 7% already today,
while Barrick is off almost
2.5%. An absence of clarity in the
gold market and in gold stocks
themselves is driving the
volatility. A lack of market
disclosure about gold companies’
gold hedging positions has put a
thread of fear into these stocks.
This comes after South Africa’s
Ashanti admitted to its
massive short positions yesterday
and took a real drubbing by
traders.

It’s much the same story in
Montreal, where the banks and
utilities have stocks up about
20 points, despite the negativity
in resources. Alberta is down
about 10 points. The VSE is more
or less unchanged.

In New York, stocks are telling
a bipolar tale. The Dow has been
bouncing around on the downside,
currently off about 12 points,
while the techs are strong. Nasdaq
is up more than 20 points on heavy
volume, and it is pushing toward
an all-time high close. After the
close yesterday, Yahoo! beat
the street by 5¢, giving lots of
fuel to the Internet stocks.
Online brokers are driving the
buying too. The S&P is just about
unchanged at midday.