Stocks continue to claw heir way higher today, following the military gains made in Afghanistan. The progress of the war is helping boost hopes for economic recovery in the US, and the rest of the world.

At midday, the TSE 300 is up 61 points to 7377. Volume is strong today at 113 million shares, with buying overwhelming selling by more than 3:1. Winners outnumber losers by 5:4.

The gains are pretty broad-based, led by techs. But there is also substantial recovery in financials, media, transports and resource stocks. Only golds are suffering, down almost 4%, as traders flee the safe haven. The free fall in oil prices is also hampering the action in that sector.

Nortel Networks is leading the techs, and the market, higher today. Hopes for tech spending recovery, has it up almost 5% on about 9.6 million shares. It is being joined by strength in Celestica, Research in Motion, Wi Lan, Mosaic, JDS Uniphase, Descartes Systems, Certicom, even 360networks.

Beaten up blue-chips are rebounding too, with names such as Bombardier, CN Rail, Royal Bank and Scotia all bouncing back on strong volume. Air Canada is up too.

TodayÕs market weakness is focused in gold and oil. Stocks such as Canadian Hunter, Placer Dome, Barrick, Agnico Eagle, Franco Nevada, Meridian Gold and Precision Drilling are all sliding. There’s also weakness in 724 Solutions and Co-Steel.

There are a couple of buy-backs in the works today. FPI intends to acquire up to 767,479 common shares over the next 12 months, which figure represents 5% of its outstanding common shares. Great-West Lifeco Inc is buying back up to 6 million common shares, representing 1.62% of its shares outstanding.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average continues its march back toward 10,000. Recovery hopes are driving the trade. The Dow is off intra-day highs, but it is still up 48 points to 9915. The Nasdaq composite index has gained 16 points to 1915. The S&P is up five ticks to 1144.

The CDNX is up five to 3057. Volume there is strong at 20 million shares, thanks to a couple of new issues. Miners are powering the way higher. The top trader is Dreamtec Inc, moving 2 million shares at 20¢.