Markets are climbing modestly today on some renewed economic optimism. At midday, the TSE 300 is up 35 points to 7550.

Volume is robust at 92.2 million shares, with advancers holding an 11:10 edge on sellers.

The financial management companies are being dragged down by Power Corp. The financial conglomerate is down about 3% on heavy volume on news that executive Paul Desmarais is selling a large chunk of his shares.

It was announced that a holding company controlled by Desmarais has entered into an agreement with RBC Capital Markets for the issue of 25-year debentures exchangeable for 3 million subordinate voting shares of Power Corp. The firm says that Desmarais is selling for financial and estate planning purposes. BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc., CIBC World Markets Inc. and Scotia Capital Inc. were also involved in the transaction. The offering is expected to close on December 21.

The Sun Life-Clarica deal remains a hot trade. Clarica is up about 1.3% in active trading today. Sun Life is gaining today too. Banks are heading higher on hope that this deal may spell a return to bank mergers too. Royal Bank, TD and Bank of Montreal are all up in active trading.

Gains are also coming in Bell Canada International, Barrick, Placer Dome, Inco, CP Ships, Vivendi, Four Seasons, QLT and Gildan. Weston is recovering from CEO Richard Currie’s retirement announcement too.

The techs have turned negative after recovery hope evapourated, due to poor earnings news from Solectron and an earnings warning from Telus. Solectron is down almost 18% after reporting weak earnings. This is hitting Nortel Networks, Celestica, ATI, Research in Motion, Microcell, Teknion and Zarlink Semi.

Telus didn’t need Solectron’s poor results to help it sell-off. It is down 3.6% on news that its earnings per share will take hit in 2002. The firm says that its earnings per share will be significantly lower in 2002 due to significant one-time gains on sale of non-core assets in 2001, higher depreciation, financing charges and large-corporations tax.

Also, Transat AT is writing off $100 million, and it reports that it has also received an injection of more than $40 million in additional cash through an agreement with certain shareholders and lenders.

In New York, stocks are making gains on news of optimism by General Electric, and strong housing numbers there indicating that the housing sector is holding up if nothing else. This has the Dow up 64 points to 9956. Nasdaq has gained six ticks to 1993. The S&P is also up six points to 1141.

The S&P/CDNX Composite Index is bucking the trend, down three points to 976. Volume is very heavy there though at 25.7 million shares. Canadian Imperial Ventures is leading the volume parade. ItÕs down 51% to 36¢ on more than 1.1
million shares.