Stocks are climbing Thursday, as signs of economic recovery perk up traders. The S&P/TSX composite index is up 36 points to 7,527 at midday.

In Canada, retail sales came in much stronger than expected, and suggested that retailers will shake off the effects of SARS and mad cow disease quite well.

In the U.S., jobless claims continued to slide, and the Philly Fed index reported a huge increase in business activity. Both reports bode well for the U.S. recovery.

Toronto volume is decent at 116.4 million shares, with buying ahead of selling by a margin of about five to two. Market breadth also favours the bulls, with winners outnumbering losers 29:21.

Techs, financials, energy stocks and the health care, industrial and diversified sectors are all powering higher today. Golds are selling off a bit, down 1.5%, while utilities are weaker, too.

Optimism about the U.S. recovery is helping to drive the tech sector higher. Nortel is, as usual, moving the most market cap. It has gained about 1% in heavy trading. But there are much bigger percentage gains in names such as JDS Uniphase and Research in Motion. JDS is up more than 7% on news that its founder and CEO, Jozef Straus, is retiring.

Financials are also getting a boost, rebounding after yesterday’s weakness. CIBC is just flat, but TD Bank is up 0.6%, and Fairfax Financial has jumped 4%.

Bombardier is also recovering a bit, gaining 1.5% on heavy volume of 6.8 million shares. There are gains in Magna International, Canico Resources, Sino Forest, Midnight Oil & Gas, VSM Medtech and Dynatec.

Golds are slumping with optimism swelling elsewhere in the market. Barrick is down 0.6% in active trading.

There is weakness in all the usual suspects, including Cambior, Wheaton River Minerals, Nevsun Resources, Placer Dome, Eldorado Gold, Miramar Mining, Goldcorp and Golden Star Resources.

Non-gold losers include Hydrogenics and Ivanhoe Energy.

In earnings news, Impact Energy Inc. reported that it earned $2.1 million in the second quarter.

Niko Resources Ltd. saw its earnings gain to $6.9 million for its first quarter.

Procyon Biopharma Inc. reported that it lost $3.1 million in the second quarter of 2003, compared with a net loss of $1.6 million for the same quarter last year.

In New York, the volume remains light, but traders have definitely been cheered by signs of an economic recovery. The Dow Jones industrial average has added 35 points at midday to 9,433. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index is 12 points stronger at 1,772. The broader S&P 500 is up three points to 1003.

The S&P/TSX Venture index has added eight points to 1,280. Volume remains strong there at 28 million shares. Advectus Life Sciences is leading the trade, up 2¢ to 6¢ on more than 1.5 million shares traded.