Bay Street got back off the mat today after being hit hard Wednesday by the problems surrounding Nortel Networks Corp., while good news on profits breathed life into Wall Street.

By mid-day the Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index was up 68.9 points or 0.84% at 8303.77, recouping some of the previous session’s 300-point loss over negative news from Nortel. The TSX Venture Exchange was off 10 points or 0.6% to 1653.75.

In New York, the Dow industrial average was 4.83 points or 0.05% higher to 10347.43, after falling 135.56 points on Wednesday. The tech sector wasn’t quite as attractive, as the Nasdaq was off 11 points or 0.57% to 1978.17, while the S&P 500 index was down a point to 1121.10.

Nortel’s stock was trading 21¢ up in the morning to $5.47. Some analysts put a “buy” rating on it after Wednesday’s 29% plunge on news that the company had fired its three top executives.

“Yesterday’s beating was obviously all about Nortel and the markets this morning are having a tentative recovery after yesterday’s fall,” Blair Falconer, chief investment officer with First Asset Advisory Services, told Reuters. “The fact that Nortel took everybody down yesterday was sort of a knee jerk reaction. It’s a Nortel problem, not a Canadian stock market problem.”

All but two of the TSX index’s sectors were up, with materials up 1.87% and gold up 2.37%. The tech sector was ahead 0.33%. Financials were off 0.1%.

Metals prices fell on Wednesday on fears that moves by China to cool its red-hot economy would have serious repercussions for metals demand.

Among financial companies, Manulife Financial Corp was one of the most active, its shares off $3.76 to $51.24. On Wednesday it became the largest publicly traded company in Canada after closing its takeover deal of John Hancock Financial.

CI Fund Management Inc. was up 15¢ to $16.30 after it announced a $38.5-million deal to acquire IQON Financial Management Inc. and Synera Financial Services Inc. from Sun Life Financial Inc.

The Canadian dollar, meanwhile, rebounded somewhat from Wednesday’s plunge of US1.31¢, which was sparked by the huge selloff of Nortel and lower commodity prices. The loonie rose 0.14 of a cent Thursday to US72.89¢.

In U.S. news affecting the markets, American gross domestic product for the first quarter came in at an annual rate of 4.2%. While the growth rate was below expectations of 5%, the GDP figure eased some fears that the Federal Reserve will move quickly to raise interest rates. Also, new U.S. filings for jobless benefits fell last week by 18,000 to 338,000, another sign that layoffs were easing. Workers’ wages and benefits grew 1.1% in the first quarter, the biggest increase in a year.

Media giant Time Warner Inc. and oil company Exxon Mobil Corp. helped the market higher as their quarterly earnings beat Wall Street’s forecasts.

Statistics Canada said its latest survey of business conditions indicated that manufacturers’ cautious first-quarter optimism is tempered by uncertainty about their prospects for the second quarter.

Overseas, Japan’s financial markets were closed for Greenery Day.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index plunged 159.73 points or 1.31% to 12005.58.

London’s FTSE 100 index edged up 6.9 points or 0.15% at 4531.4 just before the close. Frankfurt’s DAX 30 lost 0.93% while the Paris CAC 40 was down 0.71%.