Stocks are trading higher on some stronger corporate news today. The S&P/TSX composite index is up 49 points at midday to 8,688.

Toronto volume is decent at 167.2 million shares, with buying edging the selling by a margin of more than eight to seven. The market breadth also looks compellingly bullish, as winners outnumber losers 23:14.

The gains are broad-based today, with almost every sector in the black. Energy, miners and health care stocks are all leading the way, with gains of more than 1%. Real estate, golds, techs and materials are also up impressively.

Industrials are the only weak group, down about 0.5% on the day.

Nortel is enjoying a solid gain, following news that Juniper Networks is making a US$4 billion acquisition today. It has gained 1.4% on moderate volume of 8.5 million shares.

Research in Motion has jumped 1.6%. Leitch Tech is romping higher, gaining 18%, although it put out a news release at the request of the TSX, indicating that there is no news at the firm.

Hip Interactive is up sharply on news that its’ net earnings for the quarter were $8.1 million last quarter. The firm said it has completed the acquisition of LSP, a privately held France-based publisher of video and PC games for 3 million euros. Hip believes that the acquisition will be accretive for fiscal 2005.

The other big winner on the day is Alcan. It has gained 1.8% on news that its profits increased by a factor of five due to tax changes in Australia and its buyout of Pechiney SA.

Energy stocks are getting a boost from the feeling that the U.S. economy is going to stay expansionary with low interest rates. This is boosting names such as Suncor Energy, EnCana, TransCanada, Inco, Falconbridge, Teck, Desert Sun Mining and Inmet Mining.

News is also driving big winners such as AMR Technologies, which has jumped more than 30% after announcing that it has developed a new nanotechnology application.

Badger Daylighting is up more than 4% on news that it plans to convert itself into an income trust.

There is also strength in TVI Pacific, Draxis Health and Pengrowth.

There is plenty of action in financial stocks. CIBC is up more than 1.1%, as traders applaud its’ effort to rehabilitate its’ image. TD Bank and Royal Bank are both higher.

Bank of Montreal and Manulife are both down. Fairfax Financial is down 3%, too, but its spin off Northbridge Financial is up 6%.

Sun Life also reported that its embattled subsidiary MFS Investment Management, has hired former Fidelity chief Robert Pozen, as its new chairman.

On the downside, Moore Wallace is a big loser. It has dropped more than 8% in heavy trading on news that Mark Hiltwein, executive VP and CFO, has been suspended with pay for allegedly providing a false document to the firms’ auditors, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. Also, the firm reported that RR Donnelley and Moore Wallace have received approval under the Investment Canada Act for the proposed combination of the two companies.

Tahera is taking a big hit today, following last week’s big run up. It is down more than 5% in huge volume of 33.6 million shares after last week’s news that an environmental assessment has recommended approval of its’ diamond mine in Nunavut.

There is also conspicuous weakness in Envoy Communications, Aeterna Labs, Mitec, Air Canada, Atlas Cold Storage and Royal Group Tech.

Fairborne Energy has entered into a purchase and sale agreement with BP Canada Energy Company to acquire operated oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids assets located in west-central Alberta for a total consideration of $116 million. Financing for this acquisition will be obtained through a combination of equity and debt financing.

Pan American Silver has signed a binding agreement to purchase for approximately $35 million of the voting shares of Compania Minera Argentum S.A.

Wi-Lan confirmed its prior financial guidance for the 12 months ended Oct. 31, 2004.

In New York, the trade has been rather uninspiring with light volume and minimal price action. The Dow Jones industrial average is currently down four points, after gyrating around the opening level all day. It sits at 10,589. The Nasdaq composite index is a bit stronger on the Juniper news, gaining six ticks to 2,070.

The S&P/TSX Venture index has been quite strong today, gaining 25 points so far to 1,842. Volume is quite heavy at 49.4 million shares. The top trader is Spider Resources Inc., up 2.5¢ to 20.5¢ on 3.3 million shares traded.

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