By James Langton

(April 9- 13:00 ET) – Markets are posting modest gains today in rather lacklustre trading. At midday, the TSE 300 is up 46 points to 7,521.

Volume is just 51 million shares, with buyers outweighing sellers three to two. Advancers hold a five to four edge over decliners.

The buying is rather broad-based, with just two of the TSE’s 14 sub-indices down; the safe havens, gold and pipelines, being the lone losers. Everything else is up, led by old economy stalwarts, energy, miners and utilities.

Idle chatter about a possible inter-meeting rate cut in the U.S. is helping stocks. Traders are suggesting that the U.S. Federal Reserve Board could cut rates on Thursday, after Dallas Fed president Bob McTeer fuelled speculation by refusing to rule out such a move.

The buying is coming from a broad range of stocks, including techs such as 724 Solutions, Certicom, Descartes Systems, TLC and Aastra, as this sector bounces back.

But it is the old line companies that are posting the biggest gains. Names such as Cameco, Co-steel, Potash Corp., Maverick Tube, Alcan, Encal Energy, Vivendi, Lafarge Corp., Weyerhaeuser and Precision Drilling, are all up.

Nortel Networks is one firm not joining the rally. It is down just over 1% in light trading. It is joined by techs such as Mitel and Teknion. But losers also include Placer Dome, Ventus Energy, and an electric group of stocks such as Sceptre, GTC Transcon, Saputo and West Jet.

Gildan Activewear continues to slide on news of its litigation with the good folks at Fruit of the Loom.

The financials are mixed, with Royal Bank leading the banks higher. While Manulife pushes the insurers lower. The fund companies are generally down, too.

In New York, strong early momentum has flagged at midday. Nevertheless, the Dow Jones industrial average is up 95 points to 9,886. The Nasdaq composite has gained 15 points to 1,735. The S&P 500 is up 10 ticks to 1,139. Hope for a rate cut seems to be the big news, as is some M&A action in Europe and some earnings comfort from Amazon.com Inc.

The CDNX is bucking the buying trend today, down seven points to 2,900. Volume is weak at 15.3 million shares. Techs are weak, mines are flat and oils are up a little. Newcomer Revolve Capital Corp is teh top trader, with 2 million shares crossing the tape at 20¢.