Stocks are mixed Wednesday as traders digest a raft of corporate earnings news. The S&P/TSX composite index is up just 13 points to 7,198 at midday.

Volume is notably stronger today at 123 million shares, with buying overwhelming the selling 13 to nine. Market breadth is also bullish, as winners outnumber losers 19:14.

The golds are really leading the rally today, up 2.6% on profit optimism for that sector. There are also gains for diversifieds, financials, materials and health care stocks. There is weakness in recent winners, techs, real estate and energy.

Big producers such as Barrick are leading the gold group higher, but it is receiving strong support from smaller firms such as Miramar Mining, Goldcorp, Minefinders, Meridian Gold and Pan American Silver.

Alcan is powering the diversified miners higher today, up 2.3% on strong volume of 1.2 million shares, on hopes that it will win its bid for Pechiney.

The financials are making gains, led by a 0.9% move higher by Sun Life Financial. There are also solid gains in Royal Bank, Scotiabank and Manulife Financial.

Health care stocks are being led higher by QLT, which is up 5.5% in strong trading on news that it increased its second quarter earnings to US$11.2 million.

TLC is also up sharply in decent volume, despite no news from the firm.

However, it’s not all good news in the sector, with Micrologix Biotech plunging 60% on news that a Phase III trial of one of its drugs showed no statistically significant improvement from current treatment methods in preventing bloodstream infections.

Other gainers include Total Energy Services and Paramount Energy Trust.

Nortel is leading the downside, as traders lock in profits. It is down 3.3% on 9.8 million shares. There is also selling in BCE Emergis and Microcell.

Other prominent losers include Ashton Mining, as traders react to some assay results. And, there are slides in Canfor, Triquest Energy Mega Bloks, CoolBrands and NCE Petrofund.

In other earnings news, Nova Chemicals reports that it earned US$75 million for the second quarter of 2003. This included $117 million after tax of unusual items related mainly to the sale of non-strategic assets. Nova Chemicals’ loss to common shareholders before unusual items was $42 million for the quarter. This compares with $4 million of net income before unusual items in the first quarter of 2003 and a loss before unusual items in the second quarter of 2002 of $22 million.

Canadian Pacific Railway reports that a special charge of $150 million was largely responsible for net income declining to $29 million in the quarter, from $169 million in the second quarter of 2002. The special charge, announced in June, recognizes the cost of productivity measures and a writedown to fair value of underperforming assets.

Abitibi-Consolidated posted second quarter net earnings of $147 million, compared with $203 million in the same quarter of 2002. Included in the current quarter’s results is an after-tax gain of $246 million, compared with $211 million in the second quarter of 2002 on translation of foreign currencies, primarily from the company’s debt.

For the three months ended June 30, Dofasco’s consolidated net income was $38.8 million. In the second quarter of 2002, Dofasco’s net income was $69.7 million.

Westport Innovations’ net loss for the quarter was $8.3 million, compared with a loss of $11.4 million during the same period in fiscal 2003. This is the fourth consecutive quarter of improved loss per share for the company.

Astral Media earnings increased to $20.2 million in its third quarter.

In New York, traders are getting a little more cautious on the economy and digesting some weak earnings from firms such as Sun Micro. This has the Dow Jones industrial average down 51 points at midday to 9,107. The S&P 500 has dropped eight points to 980. The Nasdaq composite index is also down eight ticks at 1698.

The S&P/TSX venture index is following Toronto’s market higher, gaining four points to 1132. Volume is average at 16.7 million shares, led by a 730,000 share trade in VRB Power Systems, which is up 1.5¢ to 42¢.