By Jeff Sanford

(August 3 – 16:30 ET) – Talk about a roller coaster ride and a half. North American markets, which had opened drastically lower this morning, managed to stage a remarkable comeback and actually posted gains on the day.

The biggest seesaw was Nasdaq, which opened at 3,554.68 after closing at 3,658.46 yesterday. It dropped to 3,521.14 after the opening,but then crawled back to end the day at 3,761, a gain of 101.42 points.

So It was with the TSE 300, which closed yesterday at 10,368.48, and then open at 10,181.46. The 300 composite steadily recovered throughout the day and closed at 10,425.30, a gain of 45.20.

The story was similar with the Dow, though not as dramatic. It opened at 10,679.37, dropped slightly to 10,623.44 ,but then recovered and closed at 10,742.48, a gain of 18.68 points.

The S&P 500 also posted a gain on the day, closing at 1.452.56, an increase of 13.86 over the previous day’s close.

What drove the recovery? On Nasdaq, primarily tech stocks, particularly Internet, networking and hardware stocks — chip stocks sat out the return. In the broader market it was financials and biotechs driving the increase.

Volume was heavy on the U.S. exchanges with 1.05 billion shares traded on the NYSE and1.79 billion on Nasdaq. The TSE saw 109.2 million shares trade hands but the advance was slightly narrow today as decliners outnumbered advancers 534 to 500.

Had the sell-off of the last week been overdone? Perhaps. Traders seemed to be hunting for bargains and setting themselves up for a rebound if employment data released tomorrow is positive. Nevertheless, no one expects a sustained ascent in front of the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee meeting in late August.

In individual stocks, Motorola was a big drag on the market. The worlds second-largest phone maker told analysts that profits would be less than expected at its handset division. Chip maker Kulicke & Soffa Industries also announced that it had to delay shipments, which would impact financial performance.

Retailers took it on the chin as the Gap reported that its second-quarter earnings are going to be about 10% below expectations. Note the direct correlation between lower earnings and an ad campaign centered on 80s-era bright pastels. Is anyone really surprised?

Of the TSE sub-indices, six ended the day higher. Pipeline issues led the way. They were up 2.44% while industrial products, conglomerates and paper were all up over 1%.

Of the techs, Nortel was up $1.60 to $108.25, JDS was up $6.40 to $173 and Descartes Systems was up $1.60 at $47.15.

The loonie closed slightly lower on minimal trading today as currency traders are waiting for the job data tomorrow. The Canadian buck closed at US67.42¢ today, down from US67.55¢ yesterday.